CEO Compensation Trends: Record Highs in 2025

On June 23, 2026, the landscape of executive compensation in the U.S. has seen a significant shift, with over 12 CEOs surpassing $200 million in annual pay, marking a record high since 2021. Among these, Shankh Mitra of Welltower Inc WELL stands out with a staggering compensation package of $821 million, primarily in stock awards. This trend raises questions about the alignment of executive pay with investor returns and the overall health of corporate governance. READ MORE

Jeff Bezos Says It’s ‘Kind of Absurd’ A Nurse Making $75K Is Paying More Than $1,000 A Month In Taxes — ‘They Should Be Sending Her An Apology’

When one of the world's richest people starts arguing that someone else should be paying less tax, ears tend to perk up.

During an interview with CNBC last month, Amazon founder Jeff Bezos weighed in on the growing debate over wealth inequality and the financial pressures facing many Americans. Rather than focusing on who should be blamed, Bezos argued that policymakers should spend more time identifying why people are struggling in the first place and less time searching for villains. READ MORE

The Post-Proxy Transition: How Peer Tracking Is Changing for HR Teams

Every year, proxy season creates a familiar scramble. HR and compensation teams spend weeks analyzing dense SEC filings to answer a critical question from the board: How do our executive pay and corporate governance structures compare with our peers?

Following the conclusion of proxy season, HR and compensation teams use key peer policy information and updates to prepare for annual meetings and upcoming board and compensation committee meetings. However, sorting through and analyzing the information can be quite challenging for teams. READ MORE

Long-term incentives lift CFO pay amid competition for talent

The research comes as CFOs take on an expanding set of responsibilities spanning areas such as capital allocation, mergers and acquisitions, and technology oversight, even as turnover and talent shortages continue to pressure the finance leadership pipeline.

CFO turnover is cooling from recent highs but remains elevated by historical standards, according to a recent report from Russell Reynolds Associates. Among public companies listed on major global stock indices, 4.9% appointed a new CFO in the first quarter of 2026, down from a record 5.2% a year earlier and marking the first year-over-year decline in CFO appointments since 2022, the firm said. Activity, however, remains above the seven-year Q1 average of 4.4%. READ MORE

Trump tariffs reshape executive pay in S&P 500 proxy season, report finds

Tariffs introduced by US president Donald Trump are showing up in an unusual place: executive pay. New research from DragonGC, titled Tariff disclosures and executive compensation: S&P 500 2026 proxy analysis, has found that companies across the index used this year’s proxy statements to explain how sweeping US trade measures affected incentive plans, payout decisions and the way compensation committees judged management performance. READ MORE

SEC amendments to company filer statuses would reduce executive pay disclosure

As part of its efforts to simplify US public company reporting and disclosure requirements, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) proposed sweeping amendments to its public company reporting framework on May 19. The changes include significant reductions to required executive pay disclosure for most public companies. Only large accelerated filers (LAFs), which are defined as those with public float of $2 billion or more, would still be required to comply with the current rules. All other companies (approximately 80% of current public companies) and, for at least a five-year period after going public, newly public companies would be categorized as non-accelerated filers (NAFs). NAFs would be able to take advantage of scaled disclosure rules that currently apply only to emerging growth companies (EGCs) and smaller reporting companies (SRCs). A subcategory of small NAFs with total assets of $35 million or less (SNFs) would receive additional accommodations. READ MORE

Executive pay climbed again in 2025—and the CEO-to-worker gap kept widening

Elon Musk earned more in fiscal year 2025 than any other public company executive—by an almost incomprehensible margin.

His $158.4 billion Tesla stock award, reinstated by the Delaware Supreme Court after years of litigation, placed him atop the annual executive compensation rankings published by C-Suite Comp, whose data covers approximately 3,700 public company chief executives and whose figures reflect fiscal year 2025 for most companies. The award was so large C-Suite Comp removed Musk as a statistical outlier before calculating broader market trends. READ MORE

The End of Discretionary Compensation

Standard practice for attracting and recruiting candidates has generally involved understanding how much money they currently make, but not having to be specific about what positions paid if they were the final selection. Starting June 7, 2026, the EU is effectively turning this around. From this time forward, the EU Directive on Pay Transparency (Directive (EU) 2023/970) will be enforced.

Under this directive, employers will have to disclose salary ranges for advertised positions. Employers will not be able to ask candidates about their pay history. Alongside this, companies will have to report gender pay gaps—the percentage difference between the average male and female gross earnings. For companies with more than 250 employees, they are expected to report this annually; companies with between 150 and 249 employees report it every three years; and those with between 100 and 149 employees report it every three years from 2031. READ MORE

Downtown Seattle lost 30,000 jobs, billions in office value since 2020 payroll tax

A new report from Downtown Seattle Association (DSA) claimed that Seattle lost thousands of jobs and significant property value in the years since implementing the "JumpStart" payroll tax in 2020.

Monday's report compared Seattle's status with its neighboring city, Bellevue, which has no comparable payroll tax or social housing tax, and found that while Seattle's workforce and property values have shrunk, Bellevue's has remained resilient. READ MORE

Income needed to afford a median-priced home has nearly doubled since 2020

A new report on the U.S. housing sector finds that activity remains subdued through the first part of the year as high costs suppress demand.

The Joint Center for Housing Studies of Harvard University released its annual "State of the Nation's Housing" report on Wednesday, which found that existing home sales remain near the lowest level in three decades that was first reached in 2023. READ MORE

Employer Costs for Employee Compensation for the Regions — March 2026

Private industry employer costs for employee compensation among the four regions of the country ranged from $41.59 per hour in the South to $54.61 in the Northeast in March 2026, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported today. In the other two regions, hourly employer costs for employee compensation stood at $43.82 in the Midwest and $51.16 in the West. (See chart 1.) In addition to regional estimates, employer costs for nine smaller geographic divisions are also available. Within divisions, total compensation costs ranged from $37.29 per hour in the East South Central division to $55.14 in the Pacific region. (See table 1.) Employer Costs for Employee Compensation (ECEC) are based on the National Compensation Survey, which measures employer costs for wages, salaries, and employee benefits. READ MORE

EXECUTIVE COMPENSATION—Del. Ch.: Amended DGCL provision factored into split decision on founder’s, directors’ pay packages

The court interpreted what it means to rebut a presumption of director independence with “substantial,” not just particularized, facts under amended DGCL Section 144(d)(2).

The Delaware Chancery Court delivered a split decision regarding a company pay package that awarded its founder/nonexecutive chair a one-time equity grant and provided for the company’s directors to award themselves compensation. The court concluded that recently amended DGCL Section 144 saved the founder/nonexecutive chair from liability in combination with the plaintiff’s failure to allege particularized facts that may have excused demand. But directors who approved the board’s pay package could be liable, at least at the pleading stage of the case, because the complaint sufficiently alleged that the approving directors’ actions fell short of entire fairness (the plaintiff’s unjust enrichment claim also can proceed against all directors who retained their compensation) (Ayers v. Foley, No. 2025-0650-LWW (Del. Ch. June 15, 2026)). READ MORE

CEO Compensation Is Up for 2026

Compensation Advisory Partners (CAP) recently released a report, titled “Early Filers: CEO Compensation Up; Bonus Payout at Target,” that reviewed CEO pay levels among 50 companies with fiscal years ending between August and October 2025 (defined as the early filers). According to the report’s findings, 2025 financial performance was generally flat to up, which resulted in median bonus payouts of around target. Total compensation for the CEO was up more than 8% due to an increase in the grant date value of long-term incentives (LTIs). READ MORE

Stock based pay lifted US compensation as markets soared

Stock markets may not reflect the real economy, but sharp gains in stock prices in the U.S. bring more than just a psychological lift for many households. The growth of compensation paid in the form of stock may strengthen the link between labor and real economic pressure.

One of the main puzzles in recent years has been how post-pandemic swings in inflation and rates, as well as political and trade uncertainty, have not steered the broad U.S. economy into a recession. READ MORE

SpaceX IPO Filing Offers View Of Its Employee Stock Compensation

Employee stock compensation is part of the rocket fuel that has boosted SpaceX into orbit. Now SpaceX is about to go public in a much-anticipated initial public offering (IPO). It is expected that the SpaceX IPO will be a historic blastoff making millionaires of thousands of SpaceX employees via their equity awards. Some may even see their wealth go “to the moon,” with net worths climbing to $100 million or more.

The SEC Form S-1 filing for the SpaceX IPO provides some insights into the company’s stock options, restricted stock units (RSUs), and other forms of employee equity compensation beyond the more extensive details it had to disclose about grants for its executive officers. READ MORE

20 of the highest-paid city mayors in the US, ranked by salary

It pays big to lead a city — sometimes more than it does to lead the state.

After taking office in January, Zohran Mamdani, the mayor of New York City, joined the exclusive ranks of mayors who outearn their governors' salaries.

Mayor salaries range widely across the US, from some in smaller towns earning as little as a couple of thousand dollars a year to the six-figure salaries many major city leaders earn. READ MORE

San Francisco voters reject tax hike targeting companies with highly paid executives

San Francisco voters appeared to reject a ballot measure that would have significantly increased taxes on some large companies with highly paid executives, delivering a win for business groups and technology leaders who argued the proposal could hinder the city's economic recovery.

According to results posted by the San Francisco Department of Elections, Measure D was failing with 53.64% of voters opposed and 46.36% in favor. The measure required a simple majority to pass. READ MORE