Median CEO pay at largest companies reaches a record $15.7 million

CEO pay is up yet again. A booming stock market and bulging equity awards propelled the median 2017 compensation for CEOs of the 100 largest companies to the highest figure in 11 years, according to a new analysis.

The report, released Wednesday by executive compensation and governance research firm Equilar, examines pay of the 100 largest public companies by revenue, and comes in advance of broader CEO pay rankings that typically arrive later in the spring and analyze the companies of the entire Standard & Poor's 500-stock index. READ MORE

Netflix Accused of Violating U.S. Tax Law in Bonuses to Top Executives

When Congress passed sweeping tax changes at the end of last year, Netflix became one of the first companies to restructure its compensation to top executives. The amended tax law no longer allowed companies to deduct performance-based bonuses to those managers making more than $1 million. So in light of the change, Netflix scrapped cash bonuses in favor of a higher salary. A new lawsuit first filed under seal late last week questions what Netflix was doing before the change. READ MORE

Emanuel bans quizzing new hires about salary history

In a move of both political and governmental import, Mayor Rahm Emanuel today ordered all city departments to refrain from asking job applicants about their salary history.

The executive order issued today—which is Equal Pay Day nationally—specifically bans questions about an applicant's prior wages, benefits or other compensation, and it forbids similar queries to the applicant's prior employers. READ MORE

The gender pay gap isn't just about what you make.

Historically, we think of these as "female" jobs. But that's not only an assumption — it's also the actual job market.

"Occupational segregation" is the term academics use to refer to this split, with women historically relegated to lower-paying, "support" jobs (think secretary or office manager) and men taking the higher-paying, "glamour" jobs (think boss, manager, etc.). READ MORE

Should You Accept Equity as Compensation?

Startups often lure in star employees with the promise of equity. Why? A lot of startups are short on cash but can issue shares at will and have equity to hand out.

I recently helped a client negotiate his full-time employment agreement with a newly funded startup doing exactly that: providing equity in lieu of higher compensation. We normally deal in freelancers, but we are increasingly being asked to lend our negotiating skills for full-time employment contracts. READ MORE

Who Gets What Slice Of The Pie

Startup equity is one of those things that it’s fair to say every startup founder without an MBA struggles with. Most people don’t have to think about this stuff until it’s really important. But if you’re starting to freak out about who gets what slice of your startup pie, take a deep breath, calm down, and get ready for Startup Equity 101. READ MORE

Director Equity Award Limit In LTIPs: How Companies Are Addressing It This Proxy Season

This proxy season has revealed an intensifying trend to address limitations on grants to non-employee directors in many long-term incentive plans ("LTIPs"). Based on a review of approximately 50 LTIPs submitted for approval this proxy season thus far by Delaware companies, a majority of such LTIPs now include a director-specific limit on the size of annual non-employee director grants and a handful generally permit grants only in pre-determined amounts as set forth in the LTIPs.   READ MORE

CEO Pay Rewards What Was Going to Happen Anyway

Compensation in all its excesses for top corporate executives is a hardy perennial for astonishment, outrage and fruitless demands for reform. I have said more than once that many, indeed, most, chief executive officers at publicly traded U.S. companies are wildly overpaid. But some recent research adds some nuance that deserves a closer look.

First, a quick reminder: For more than four decades U.S. executives have received much bigger pay increases than their brethren in Europe and Japan. Today, top German executives make about half of what their U.S. counterparts are paid; Japanese CEOs get paid about 10 percent of comparable American CEOs. READ MORE

NY Fed's Dudley says regulators should increase focus on bank executives

Banks should adopt compensation plans that discourage excessive risk-taking and place greater onus on senior managers for wrongdoing, the outgoing head of the New York Federal Reserve said on Monday. William Dudley, who plans to step down later this year, said regulators should encourage banks to overhaul their corporate cultures to reduce risk and bad behavior, even as regulators move to relax other rules introduced following the 2007-2009 financial crisis. READ MORE

You’ve Got Lots of Company Stock. Now What?

It’s a decidedly first-class problem: what to do when you receive most, or even substantially all of your compensation in stock?

As the concept of “pay for performance” has taken root in corporate America, more C-suite executives are gaining firsthand experience with the major upsides — and occasional pitfalls — that can accompany generous equity compensation plans. READ MORE

On exec compensation, Sen. Sanders is comparing apples and oranges

The U.S. secretary of defense makes roughly $200,000 a year, while the CEOs of Lockheed Martin and Raytheon make more than $20 million. There is an element of absurdity to that.

And then you consider that Lockheed’s Marillyn Hewson and Raytheon’s Tom Kennedy are not an anomaly. Their counterparts at General Dynamics, Northrop Grumman, Boeing — all top-tier defense companies — pay their CEOs total compensation that falls in that ballpark, albeit a bit less. READ MORE