25 Companies That Pay Their Board of Directors a Shocking Amount

At one time, being a member of the board of directors of an S&P 500 company might have meant attending a few meetings a year, having some meals at the company’s expense, and scoring a nice stipend.

Those days are probably over for most publicly traded U.S. companies as demands for board oversight have been increasing lately.

In its most recent annual survey of corporate board members, PricewaterhouseCoopers pointed to several issues board members are dealing with today: culture problems, cybersecurity issues, and calls for increased diversity on boards themselves, among others.

Being a member of a corporate board may have its downsides, but it also has, in many cases, some excellent benefits. For example, board members are usually compensated in a combination of cash and stock awards, including a retainer, fees for meeting attendance, and additional retainers for committee chairs and members.

Research firm MyLogIQ LLC has compiled a ranking of director compensation at all S&P 500 companies. Here is MyLogIQ’s list of the 25 S&P 500 companies with the highest total board compensation. The data was calculated from the company’s proxy filings for 2017.