NEW YORK: Salary packages for women running S&P 500 companies jumped in 2021 as the economy recovered and stock prices and profits soared.
According to an annual survey conducted by Equilar for The Associated Press, the median salary for women in the corner office rose to nearly $16 million.
Still, experts say much remains to be done to improve gender diversity in corporate ranks and narrow the pay gap between men and women.
Jane Stevenson, vice chair of board and CEO services at Korn Ferry, an organizational consulting firm, said while it is good that women CEOs’ salaries have increased, there is still a lot to be done.
“I think the danger is to see cases in which CEOs outperform their peers and see a message about closing the pay gap – it is not,” she said.
Of the 340 CEOs in the latest survey of S&P 500 companies, 18 were women, up from 16 in 2020. Profits of the S&P 500 companies increased by about 50% and the index rose by about 27%. Since the bulk of CEOs’ compensation is tied to such performance, their salary packages mostly increased after years of moderate growth.
The median salary for female CEOs rose 26.4% to $15.8 million in 2021, with 15 out of 18 female CEOs surveyed showing an increase. The median means half made above that level, and half made less. That was a huge jump compared to the average salary for male CEOs, rising 17.7% to $14.4 million. Overall median salary increased 17.1% to $14.5 million.
Some of the women who are CEOs of the largest US companies generally make more money than their male counterparts. But last year they were nowhere close to the top of the leaderboard for pay packages. Last year, the highest-paid CEO was Expedia Group’s Peter Kern, who received a salary package of $296.2 million.
Advanced Micro Devices’ Lisa Su was the highest-paid female CEO for the third year in a row, but her compensation was $29.5 million, ranking just 22nd in the survey. Su’s salary increased by 9% from last year. This was partly due to stock and stock option awards, which totaled $25.1 million as AMD’s stock rose 57%. His basic salary was around $1.1 million.
Just behind her was Mary Barra, CEO of automaker General Motors, whose salary jumped 25% to $29.1 million, including a base salary of $2.1 million and stock and stock option awards of $18.5 million.
The biggest jump was seen in the salary of Jayshree Ullal, CEO of cloud computing company Arista Networks. His salary more than doubled to $16 million, mostly due to stock awards valued at $15.4 million. Arista’s stock doubled in 2021 on strong demand for its cloud computing products.
The number of racially diverse CEOs is also gradually increasing. Six had Black CEOs in 2021, 40 had Asian American CEOs, and 20 had Latinx/Hispanic executives, according to a survey of companies in the S&P 500 and Fortune 500 by executive recruitment firm Krist Kolder.
Equilar surveys only include CEOs who have served at least two full fiscal years at their companies to avoid the distractions of large sign-on bonuses. Companies must have filed proxy statements between January 1 and April 30.
Criterion left out a few women named for the top job in the last two years. The Walgreens Boots Alliance does not include CEOs such as Rose Brewer, Jane Fraser at Citigroup, Linda Rendl at Clorox, Judith Marks at Otis Worldwide and Reshma Kewalramani at Vertex Pharmaceuticals.
Korn Ferry’s Stevenson said that if the ranks of female CEOs are to rise, a better pipeline is needed to foster women leaders.
“Pay tells a story. We have stories of some women moving forward,” Stevenson said. “It’s great, but it doesn’t create a system. We don’t have a systematic way for women, generally, in a sustainable way, to be on the way to top roles and top salaries. ,
Alison Cook, a professor of management at Utah State University who researches gender and diversity in the workplace, said there has been a recent emphasis on bringing more women on board rather than in top C-suite roles. That might help in the long run, she said.
“Hopefully the push on the board of directors is available to bring more women into the C-suite pipeline and become CEOs,” she said.
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