2025 Filings Show Robust CEO Pay Increases at U.S. Large Cap Companies

NEW YORK (April 24, 2025) – ISS-Corporate, a leading provider of compensation, governance, cyber risk monitoring, and sustainability offerings to help companies improve shareholder value and reduce risk, today announced the results of a preliminary analysis of CEO pay changes at S&P 500 companies with shareholder meetings on or after January 1, 2025.

The study, which analyzed 320 S&P 500 companies at which the CEO was in the same role for the current and previous filing years, found a median CEO pay increase of 7.5 percent from the 2024 to 2025 filing periods. This rate of growth represents a slight decrease from the 9.2 percent rise observed between the 2023 and 2024 filing periods, suggesting a continued robust growth in CEO pay levels despite recent market turbulence.

Median pay for CEOs at the included large cap companies stood at $16.8 million, the analysis found. More than 69 percent of S&P 500 CEOs in the study received a pay increase while compensation fell for around 31 percent of them. For the segment of companies that increased pay for their chief executives, the median change was 13.2 percent, while for the segment of companies where pay dropped, compensation decreased by a median of 7.2 percent.

“CEO pay disclosures at large U.S. companies broadly reflect the strong market performance of last year,” said Roy Saliba, Managing Director at ISS-Corporate. “However, recent market turbulence and ensuing uncertainty around tariffs, a global trade war, and a possible looming recession could raise concerns over significant CEO pay increases at companies that may be facing headwinds in the coming months.”

A closer look into the components of compensation reveals that, consistent with previous years, CEO pay growth was largely driven by increases in the value of stock and option awards. While the median base salary of $1.3 million reflects a relatively modest increase of 2.7 percent over the previous filing period, the median stock award now stands at $9.9 million and the median option award (when granted) at $3.3 million, representing median increases of 6.9 percent and 6.0 percent respectively over award values in the previous year.

Large cap companies generally demonstrated strong total shareholder returns (TSR) over the measurement period with a median 1-year TSR of 15.1 percent for the subject companies of the analysis (measured at the end of the fiscal year). TSR was positive for both the companies that increased pay, who had a median TSR of 16.8 percent, and those that lowered pay, who had a median TSR of 10.8 percent.

Industries with the most drastic increases in CEO compensation include Consumer Durables & Apparel and Commercial & Professional Services with median changes of 21.2 percent and 16.9 percent respectively. CEO compensation decreased by a median of 4.4 percent for companies in the Food, Beverage, & Tobacco industry.

Variations at the industry level show the most notable disparity between median change in CEO pay and median TSR at companies in the Bank sector, where the median TSR was 33.5 percent while pay grew by 9.4 percent, and at Transportation companies, where the median TSR decreased by 3.6 percent while pay increased by 11.3 percent. The worst performing industry was Automobiles & Components where median TSR decreased by 23.0 percent, while median change in pay was slightly lower at 1.0 percent.