Chief executives of the nation’s publicly traded companies saw their collective pay decline by almost 20 percent in 2023, a new analysis shows, and even experts are stumped as to why.
Trends in CEO compensation generally mirror those of the stock market, in part because their pay packages have largely been tethered to stock performance for five decades. But a recent analysis by the Economic Policy Institute found that realized compensation for CEOs — including base salary, bonuses, stock awards and stock options — fell 19.4 percent from 2022 to 2023, a strong period for the U.S. economy and for Wall Street.
“This is probably the first time I can remember where we saw stock market go up and [CEO] pay go down,” said Josh Bivens, chief economist at the Economic Policy Institute, a left-leaning think tank. It’s left researchers questioning “whether this is a blip or some promising evidence that CEO pay is getting a little more disciplined.”
CEO compensation has soared 1,085 percent since 1978, according to the EPI’s analysis, compared with a 24 percent rise for the typical worker, so the idea that corporate boards have suddenly gotten more disciplined about CEO pay is “a little hard to believe,” Bivens said.
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Chief executives of the nation’s publicly traded companies saw their collective pay decline by almost 20 percent in 2023, a new analysis shows, and even experts are stumped as to why.
Trends in CEO compensation generally mirror those of the stock market, in part because their pay packages have largely been tethered to stock performance for five decades. But a recent analysis by the Economic Policy Institute found that realized compensation for CEOs — including base salary, bonuses, stock awards and stock options — fell 19.4 percent from 2022 to 2023, a strong period for the U.S. economy and for Wall Street.
“This is probably the first time I can remember where we saw stock market go up and [CEO] pay go down,” said Josh Bivens, chief economist at the Economic Policy Institute, a left-leaning think tank. It’s left researchers questioning “whether this is a blip or some promising evidence that CEO pay is getting a little more disciplined.”
CEO compensation has soared 1,085 percent since 1978, according to the EPI’s analysis, compared with a 24 percent rise for the typical worker, so the idea that corporate boards have suddenly gotten more disciplined about CEO pay is “a little hard to believe,” Bivens said.
Read more here: [https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2024/10/16/ceo-executive-pay-compensation/?utm_campaign=wp_main&utm_medium=social&utm_source=reddit.com](https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2024/10/16/ceo-executive-pay-compensation/?utm_campaign=wp_main&utm_medium=social&utm_source=reddit.com)
This subreddit has such an odd fascination with CEO compensation.
Yeah. I mean…I’m not a CEO, i don’t have the skills to be a ceo, and my job is way less stressful. I would expect them to make more
Oh I thought I was catching up