A new study found that as a result of big stock grants, the median pay among US CEOs increased by 7.5 percent to a record $ 16.8 million for 2024, which outpaces the median pay for US CEOs.
According to a review of pay among S& and P 500 CEOs conducted by ISS-Corporate, the corporate advisory arm of Institutional Shareholder Services, the CEOs of Axon and Union Pacific were among those who received significant pay increases from stock awards.
Other CEOs performed well, according to Roy Saliba, managing director at ISS-Corporate, who oversaw the study, whose goals were set during the comparatively stable years of 2023. Before Donald Trump started a trade war that has stymied global markets recently, that was before that president.
These figures don’t align with the looming uncertainty, stock performance for the year, current company performance, and other factors that “spout out.” According to Saliba, the pay decisions for 2024 would have been made at least a year ago because of the time difference, Saliba said.
He claimed that his company’s unit advises businesses to wait before altering pay plans to reflect market uncertainty. According to him, boards could use a different set of performance indicators to evaluate an executive’s performance against their peers.
According to Saliba’s study, 320 businesses in the S& and P 500 have reported pay data so far this year. The executives had a respectable job. According to US Bureau of Labor Statistics data, average hourly earnings for US employees increased by 4% last year, while inflation data from the Department of Commerce shows that it will increase by only 3% in 2024.
The CEO’s gains were aided by the company’s performance above those rates. The 320 Saliba companies that were analyzed had a median annual shareholder return of 15.1% in 2024.
CEO Patrick Smith at Axon, the maker of the Taser stun gun, was at one extreme, receiving a $ 164.5 million salary last year, up from $ 40 to $ 058 in 2023. He only received $ 31, 201 and $ 8, 857 in other compensation, including private air transportation, in that year.
According to Axon’s filing, the stock units that made up the majority of Smith’s 2024 pay serve as “an incentive for future performance in the form of a high-risk, high-reward compensation plan,” and the value can only be realized once each set of stock price and operational goals is met.
Axon’s comment was not forthcoming.
After being hired in August of that year, CEO James Vena received a salary of $ 17.6 million for his service to Union Pacific, versus $ 2 million for his portion of that year. The majority of his pay came from significant stock and option bonuses, according to a railroad spokesperson, which are performance-based.
His actual bonus and equity will reflect that and be less, according to the spokesperson.
Under the influence of progressive theory ,
Progressive Democrats in Washington have long urged progressive Democrats to support high CEO pay, including Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders, who has introduced legislation to increase taxes on businesses whose executive compensation is 50 percent of the worker’s average salary.
Source: Aljazeera
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