“For the first time in a decade, no CEO in the US received $100 million in a year – WSJIn 2024, no CEO in the US received a salary of $100 million. Executive compensation has increased, but no one has reached the $100
million mark.”, — write: unn.ua
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If the calculations are correct, this would be the first time in a decade without a $100 million pay package for the CEO of a public company. Such “moonshots” in the form of pay packages with a large number of shares, popularized by Elon Musk and Tesla, have attracted the attention of investors and courts in recent years.
Even without new membership in the 100-million-dollar club, compensation for the CEOs of the largest US companies continued to grow in 2024 and is on track to set a record. More than half of the CEOs of the S&P 500 earned at least $16.4 million last year, according to a Wall Street Journal analysis, up from $15.9 million in 2023, according to MyLogIQ data.
The pay packages came in a year when corporate profits rose and US stock markets hit records. Economic sentiment has deteriorated in recent weeks after US President Donald Trump launched a trade war that investors and CEOs fear could reduce consumer spending and cut profits.
As the publication writes, Musk’s multi-billion dollar pay package from Tesla in 2018, which was estimated at more than $2 billion at the time, heralded a flurry of ambitious deals.
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About three dozen CEOs of S&P 500 companies received pay packages of at least $100 million from 2020 to 2023, including Hock Tan of Broadcom and Sundar Pichai of Alphabet, as well as nine lower-level executives. Another 68 executives of smaller companies received pay packages of $100 million over the same period, including Ari Emanuel of talent agency Endeavor Group in 2021 and DoorDash CEO Tony Xu in 2020.
The number of pay packages over $100 million began to decline sharply around the time Musk’s pay package came under fire in the Delaware Chancery Court. In January 2024, the court rejected the pay deal, citing meager board discussions and close ties between Musk and Tesla directors. Since then, Tesla has received another shareholder vote in support of executive pay, and the company and the plaintiff-shareholder continue to argue in court.
The driving force behind the broader growth in pay in 2024 is: fewer CEOs earning less than $10 million, and a skew toward large packages, according to a Journal analysis of more than 150 companies. More than a third of these CEOs were paid $20 million or more – compared to about 25% two years earlier, MyLogIQ data shows.
The highest-paid CEO in the S&P 500 so far was Brian Niccol of Starbucks, who earned $95.8 million for the fiscal year ending in late September, having taken office that month. (In aggregate figures, the Journal’s analysis does not take into account the pay of Niccol and other CEOs who have been in office for less than a year.)
Among the pay packages for 2024 that came close to nine figures last year were $89 million for Larry Culp of General Electric, $84 million for Steve Schwarzman of Blackstone and $74.6 million for Tim Cook of Apple. This was the fourth consecutive year for Cook to earn more than $50 million and the eighth year for Schwarzman.
One CEO earned more than $50 million for the first time: David Gitlin at air conditioning giant Carrier Global. His reported salary more than tripled to $65.7 million from about $18 million in 2023, his highest previous salary in five years at Carrier.
The Journal reviewed data on 168 S&P 500 companies that disclosed pay data as of May 19. The Journal will publish its final ranking of S&P 500 CEO pay later this spring.