CEO pay climbs as stock award values surge

Equilar today announced the release of the 2025 edition of its Equilar 100 study, an early look at the largest CEO pay packages among U.S. companies with revenues of $1 billion or more. The study analyzes proxy filings submitted by March 31, 2025, offering a preview of CEO compensation trends.

This year’s study shows that median CEO compensation reached $25.6 million in 2024, marking a 9.5% increase from the prior year. While this is a slight deceleration from the 11.4% growth seen in last year’s study, the upward trend in CEO pay continues—driven largely by significant increases in stock award values. Median stock awards surged 40.5% year over year, climbing from $13.2 million in 2023 to $18.6 million in 2024. Stock awards accounted for roughly 73% of total median compensation for CEOs on the list.

Topping this year’s rankings is Coherent CEO Jim Anderson, who received a total compensation package of $101.5 million. Close behind is Starbucks CEO Brian Niccol, awarded $95.8 million following his appointment in September 2024. In both cases, more than 90% of compensation came in the form of long-term equity awards.

Cash compensation rose more modestly in comparison, with a 2% increase to a median of $5.7 million. Base salary saw a slight decline of 0.5%, while cash bonuses inched up 0.2%. Notably, perquisites rose 16.9% year over year—from a median of $378,390 to $452,730—potentially reflecting enhanced CEO security measures following the tragic death of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson in December.

In a notable shift, Walmart overtook Apple as the highest-revenue company among the Equilar 100, reporting $648.1 billion in fiscal year-end revenue—outpacing Apple’s $391 billion by roughly two-thirds. Overall, the median revenue among companies on the list came in at $24.7 billion.

For more findings, view the full Equilar 100 list, sortable by total compensation, company revenue and more.

About the Report

The Equilar 100 ranks the highest-paid CEOs for the most recent fiscal year at U.S.-listed companies with at least $1 billion in revenue that filed their annual proxy statements by March 31. While many of the companies in the Equilar 100 are consistent from year to year, due to changes in revenue and floating filing dates the list is not the same every year. The findings in this study are a snapshot of CEO pay trends, and with thousands of more companies filing annual proxy statements in April, a more comprehensive look will be forthcoming in several weeks after all the data is processed.

About Equilar

Equilar is the leading provider of executive intelligence solutions. The company's expertise in relationship intelligence drives state-of-the-art business development and CRM applications, board and executive recruitment, and compensation and governance strategies. Equilar integrates its extensive database of executive profiles with natural language processing and machine learning AI to enable real-time relationship analytics and targeted outreach for its global clients. Equilar's commitment to excellence has made it the go-to solution for over 1,000 companies, including 75% of the Fortune 500, top PE/VC firms and leading professional services entities. Learn more at www.equilar.com.

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