Tag: Compensation

Strong Returns Lift Pay for Software CEOs

PayPal Holdings Inc.’s PYPL -1.79% Daniel Schulman collected a pay package totaling $37.8 million in 2018, making him one of the highest-paid bosses in the S&P 500. But for Mr. Schulman and many of his fellow CEOs in the software industry, big paydays were backed by healthy returns.

Most companies selling software and related services thrived last year, with half delivering a total shareholder return of at least 10.3%, a Wall Street Journal analysis shows. That success translated to their CEOs, who received a median raise of 11.7%.

By contrast, median shareholder return for S&P 500 companies as a group was minus 5.8%, the first negative showing of any postrecession year. Despite those losses, most CEOs got a raise and the median pay reached $12.4 million last year.

CEO Pay Up Despite TSR Plummet

CEOs have done pretty well for themselves in 2019. Data from multiple compensation consultancies share one consistent finding: Pay is up.

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MyLogIQ’s data, for instance, shows that median CEO total direct comp was roughly $12.5 million for the S&P 500 and around $5.1 million for the Russell 3000.

Pay Ratios

Meanwhile, in the second year of companies’ disclosing the ratio between their median worker’s pay and the CEO’s pay, the average pay ratio is 282 to 1 for the S&P 500, MyLogIQ data shows.

At Mattel, as one example, CEO Ynon Kreiz would have to work only 36 minutes to make the entire annual wages of the company’s median worker, who made a little less than $5,500 last year.

MyLogIQ broke down what the hourly pay for CEOs would be if that were how they were compensated. Kreiz’s pay would sit at just below $9,000 per hour.

Companies Boost Pay for Board Leaders

Boards are granting compensation increases to non-executive chairs and lead directors as both roles grow increasingly more complex and, more broadly, as governance processes and board quality take center stage with investors.

An analysis from SEC filings analyzer MyLogIQ shows that such companies as CIT Group, Insperity, International Flavors & Fragrances, Kroger, Old Dominion Freight Line, Penske Automotive Group , Sientra and Verint Systems have granted pay raises to lead directors in the past year, some more than doubling the retainers for the role. Others such as Carlisle Companies, ConMed Corp., HCP, Lyondell Basell Industries, Mosaic, Office Depot and Rent-A-Center boosted pay for board chairs. In addition, Walmart, which has a lead director and board chair, granted raises to directors in both roles following the board’s review of its annual pay benchmarking analysis.

Jet Perks: Which Travel Bills Were the Priciest?

The list of the top-10 biggest spenders on aircraft perks added a new member to its ranks: Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg.

In 2018, Sandberg’s pay package included nearly $909,000 in aircraft perks, according to SEC filings analyzer MyLogIQ.

She ranks fourth on Agenda’s list of top-10 air travel spenders in the S&P 500.

First on the list is, once again, Mark Zuckerberg, Sandberg’s boss.

Zuckerberg’s corporate aircraft travel costs reached nearly $2.6 million, more than twice the amount of the next executive on the list, Tyson Foods chairman John Tyson. Tyson’s corporate jet travel amounted to almost $1.2 million, according to company disclosures.

Big Companies Pay CEOs for Good Performance—and Bad

The mechanics of chief-executive pay have grown ever more complex, but the rules remain simple: Strong performers get a raise. So do most of the rest.

For the fourth year straight, the biggest U.S. companies set CEO pay records in 2018, a Wall Street Journal analysis found, even as a majority delivered negative stock-market returns to their shareholders—a sign of the often-weak relationship between pay and performance.

Median compensation rose to $12.4 million for the bosses of S&P 500 companies last year, up 6.6% from 2017 and the highest since the 2008 recession, the Journal analysis found. Yet the median shareholder return for the companies was minus 5.8%, the worst showing since the financial crisis.

Think CEOs Are Overpaid? See How They Compare With Hollywood Celebs and Sports Stars

Halfway through this season of “American Idol,” Katy Perry hit a milestone. That’s when her earnings as a judge on the ABC show surpassed what most chief executives in the S&P 500 made all of last year.

The Wall Street Journal this week released its annual analysis of CEO pay, which hit another post-recession record in 2018. But almost all of them are still looking up at radio host Howard Stern and basketball star Steph Curry.

To put executive pay in context, the Journal matched it up against earnings for highly paid professionals across a variety of fields, from sports and entertainment to finance and law.

From Bob Iger to Warren Buffett and Jack Dorsey: These Are the Highest and Lowest Paid CEOs

Becoming a chief executive officer of a top company seems like the pinnacle of success, so what kind of money do those at the top make? For its annual report on compensation for CEOs of S&P 500 companies, The Wall Street Journal found that it varies widely, with the highest-paid CEO earning $129.4 million in 2018 and the lowest earning just $1.

The report, which was based on data from public company intelligence firm MyLogIQ, found that that the median pay for CEOs in 2018 was $12.4 million (up from $12.1 million in 2017).

The highest paid CEO in 2018 was David M. Zaslav of entertainment network Discovery, Inc. Zaslav was paid $129.4 million, a sharp increase from his $42.2 million in 2017. Much of his pay comes from stock options, and the Journal notes his significant increase in pay was almost entirely performance-based and a result of a “substantial increase in stock-option awards tied to a five-year contract extension through 2023.”