U.S. CEO remuneration up 7.7% in 2022 – Kommersant

Last year, the average pay for the 100 highest-paid CEOs in US companies rose 7.7% to a record $22.3 million. Reuters with reference to data from the research company Equilar. The authors of the study analyzed the rewards of the 100 highest-earning CEOs—they should be CEOs of public companies with $1 billion in revenue who submitted data by March 31.

Equilar publishes such data annually – in 2021, the remuneration of such top managers increased by 31%. According to Equilar’s calculations, the pay gap between top managers and ordinary employees is widening: last year, CEO compensation in the companies it analyzed exceeded the average employee compensation by 288 times – against 254 times in 2021. According to the Federal Bureau of Statistics of the Department of Labor, the average wages of workers in private companies rose only 3.6% last year, to $1,132. Growth in remuneration of CEOs outstrips the consumer inflation index – it increased by 6.5% last year. At the same time, the total profitability of the companies headed by these directors fell by 11% last year in the face of macroeconomic difficulties and an increase in the key rate.

According to Courtney Yu, director of research at Equilar, the increase in CEO compensation is due to the fact that in the conditions of macroeconomic instability, companies want “the stability of the leadership to help them get through difficult times,” and in order to retain top managers, increase their pay.

Yana Rozhdestvenskaya