Updated April 2026 · SEC DEF 14A data
Biggest CEO Pay Raises, 2024
The 34 U.S. public-company CEOs who received the largest year-over-year increases in reported total compensation in the most recent proxy cycle, ranked by percentage change. The top 10 average a +20.3% raise — roughly $3.2M in additional reported compensation per CEO compared to the prior fiscal year.
What's Behind the Biggest Raises
The largest reported "raises" almost never reflect a board doubling base salary. They reflect the structural quirks of equity-based pay accounting under FASB ASC 718. When a CEO receives a multi-year mega-grant of restricted stock or performance share units intended to cover three to five years of service, the entire grant-date fair value lands on the Summary Compensation Table for the year of the grant — producing what looks like a 200% or 300% raise even though the board's intent was to spread that compensation over several years.
Performance-share-unit vesting is the second most common driver. PSUs only count toward reported compensation when their performance hurdles are met, so a year of strong relative TSR can pull years of accumulated PSU awards into a single proxy disclosure. The third structural driver — pension-value changes — moves the "Change in Pension Value" line dramatically in either direction depending on actuarial discount-rate revisions, sometimes adding $5M+ to reported pay without any cash actually changing hands.
What this means for readers: a big "raise" headline is a starting point for analysis, not a conclusion. The relevant questions are whether the underlying grant aligned with shareholder return, whether the say-on-pay vote endorsed it, and whether the pay-versus-revenue trajectory makes sense. Those are exactly the four signals our Pay-for-Performance Grade tracks.
Top 34 Biggest CEO Raises
How These Raises Are Computed
For each company, we pull the most recent reported CEO total compensation from the Summary Compensation Table of the latest DEF 14A and compare it to the prior-year total from the same company's prior proxy. The percentage change is (current − prior) / prior. Both inputs are SEC-disclosed, available on the EDGAR system under Regulation S-K Item 402. We exclude CEOs who served less than a full year in either period (transitions, mid-year retirements). The Pay-for-Performance Grade in the rightmost column is the four-factor composite documented at methodology; revenue-versus-compensation growth is one of the four factors and is sensitive to large raises.
Frequently Asked Questions
What counts as a "raise" in this ranking?
A raise here is the year-over-year change in reported total compensation as it appears in the SEC Summary Compensation Table. Total comp includes base salary, bonus, stock awards (at grant-date fair value), option awards, non-equity incentive plan compensation, change in pension value, and other compensation. The percentage change is current-year total minus prior-year total, divided by prior-year total. CEOs who served less than a full fiscal year in either period are excluded to avoid double-counting transition payments.
Why are some raises 200% or more?
Most extreme percentage raises trace to one of three structural causes. First — multi-year equity grants. When a CEO receives a special multi-year RSU or PSU grant in one year, the headline total in that grant year can multiply, even though average annual pay is essentially unchanged. Second — performance-share-unit vesting. PSUs only count as compensation when performance hurdles are met, so a strong stock year can pull years of accumulated awards into one fiscal year. Third — pension-actuarial swings. Discount-rate revisions can move the "Change in Pension Value" line by millions in either direction. In this ranking, 0 CEOs posted raises above 200% and 0 posted raises between 100% and 200%.
Are these CEOs "actually" earning the higher number?
The reported total uses grant-date fair value for stock and option awards under FASB ASC 718 — an accounting estimate at the time of grant rather than what the executive realized. The same DEF 14A includes a separate "Option Exercises and Stock Vested" table reporting realized pay (the actual dollar value of options exercised and stock vested during the year). Both views matter. The grant-date number is what the board approved; the realized number is what flowed to the CEO in cash and shares. Most reported "raises" partially reflect grant-date accounting rather than fresh realized money.
How does a big raise affect Pay-for-Performance Grade?
The Pay-for-Performance Grade weights revenue growth versus compensation growth at 25%. When CEO compensation grows faster than the company's revenue over the same window, this factor scores low and pulls the composite grade down. A 200% pay raise during a flat-revenue year will produce a poor revenue-versus-comp score even if the CEO's say-on-pay vote and relative TSR look fine. The full input weights are documented at /methodology.
Where can I see the underlying SEC filing?
Every individual company profile linked from this ranking includes a direct link to the underlying DEF 14A on the SEC EDGAR system at https://www.sec.gov/edgar.shtml. Item 402 of Regulation S-K (https://www.law.cornell.edu/cfr/text/17/229.402) governs the form and content of the Summary Compensation Table, where each year-over-year compensation total is disclosed. The current dataset was last refreshed April 2026.
Source: U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, DEF 14A proxy filings via EDGAR. Public domain.
Last updated 2026-04-06 · 34 CEO raises ranked.