Chief Executive Group just released the 2025–26 CEO & Senior Executive Compensation Report for Private U.S. Companies, the most trusted annual benchmarking resource for executive compensation across privately held businesses in the U.S.

In this latest edition, data shows that actual bonus payouts as a percentage of base salary have been lagging for CEOs since coming out of COVID and the trend seems to be here to stay. The study finds that for the first time in four years, the bonus target for the CEO has fallen, while base salary increases are hardly keeping up with inflation. READ MORE