“I’m not surprised that after two record years in a row, pay hikes cooled somewhat,” says Sarah Anderson, who directs the Global Economy Project at the progressive Institute for Policy Studies. “What we shouldn’t lose sight of is that CEO pay is still off the charts by historical measures.”
Typical packages were worth a median $14.8mn last year, reversing the 17% climb in 2021, when boards rewarded execs for steering companies through the turbulence of the pandemic era.