CFOs saw an increase in pay last year as responsibilities for non-financial issues, including operations and strategy, expanded, sources say. Moreover, the Covid-19 pandemic is driving a redoubled focus on operations and emergency planning from CFOs, and some companies are bringing in battle-hardened finance veterans to tackle the issues related to the crisis.

However, it remains unclear how 2020 will unfold in terms of compensation for CFOs, who are shouldering much of the workload in managing liquidity and capital allocation. Annual bonuses will likely decrease more dramatically in the future as the 2020 pandemic roils company financials, sources say.

“We expect a lot of companies are probably going to have lower bonuses again next year on the equity side; however, we will have to wait and see because most companies granted equity before the pandemic impact really started for calendar-year companies,” says Roman Beleuta, principal at Compensation Advisory Partners.