Updated April 2026 · SEC DEF 14A data
CEO Pay Trend Reports
Data-driven trend reports highlighting the biggest year-over-year changes in U.S. executive compensation across 209 public companies and 836 named executive officers. The current largest raise is +29.4% (David Solomon, Goldman Sachs); the steepest cut is -28.6% (Pat Gelsinger, Intel). Each report rebuilds automatically every time a new DEF 14A filing hits SEC EDGAR.
What's Driving CEO Pay Right Now
The dominant pattern in the most recent proxy cycle is the continued shift toward performance-based equity. Roughly two-thirds of all S&P 500 companies now grant the majority of their CEO long-term equity as performance share units (PSUs) rather than time-vested restricted stock — a structure that ties final payout to relative TSR, return on invested capital, or specific revenue and earnings hurdles. The visible consequence in the trend data is sharper year-to-year volatility: when a multi-year PSU grant vests at maximum payout, reported compensation can double; when targets are missed, the same line can drop by 70% or more.
Say-on-pay votes have moved in the opposite direction. After a decade of routinely sailing past 95% approval, the median S&P 500 vote share has slipped into the high 80s as ISS and Glass Lewis tightened their pay-for-performance frameworks. A sub-70% vote — the threshold both proxy advisors flag for governance scrutiny — now occurs at roughly 5% of issuers in any given year and almost always triggers a published board response in the following proxy.
On pay ratios, the wide spread persists. Retail and hospitality companies continue to report ratios above 1,000:1 because their median worker is part-time hourly, while financial services and technology firms cluster well below 200:1. The ratio is required disclosure under SEC Regulation S-K Item 402(u) and is one of the most-cited inputs to the Pay-for-Performance Grade.
Top 5 Biggest Raises (YoY)
- David Solomon, Goldman Sachs+29.4%
- Sassine Ghazi, Synopsys+29.0%
- Jensen Huang, NVIDIA+27.7%
- George Kurtz, CrowdStrike+26.7%
- Ted Pick, Morgan Stanley+18.7%
Top 5 Biggest Pay Cuts (YoY)
Browse All Trend Reports
CEOs Who Got the Biggest Raises
Year-over-year executive compensation increases
Most Overpaid CEOs
Highest pay relative to stock performance
How These Trends Are Computed
Each trend report runs the same query against fresh proxy data: pull the most recent reported total compensation, line it up against the prior-year figure from the same company's prior DEF 14A, compute the dollar and percentage delta, then sort the universe. For say-on-pay declines, the delta is in vote-share percentage points; for pay-for-performance changes, the delta is in composite score. Reports filter out CEOs who served less than a full fiscal year in either period to avoid double-counting transition payments and pro-rated grants. Read the full methodology for inputs, weights, and edge cases. Underlying filings are accessible at SEC EDGAR.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is a CEO pay trend report?
Each trend report aggregates a specific kind of year-over-year change across the 209 companies CEOPayWatch tracks: the biggest raises, the steepest pay cuts, the sharpest declines in say-on-pay support, the largest pay-for-performance grade swings. The reports are recomputed every time a fresh DEF 14A proxy filing arrives on SEC EDGAR, so the leaderboards reflect the most recent disclosures rather than a static end-of-year snapshot. Reports currently published: 2.
How often is the trend data refreshed?
The underlying compensation data refreshes during proxy season — late February through July — as DEF 14A filings hit the SEC EDGAR system at https://www.sec.gov/edgar.shtml. Most large issuers file in March or April. The current dataset was refreshed in April 2026. Out-of-cycle 8-K filings (e.g. mid-year CEO changes or special equity grants) trigger a per-company refresh within 24 hours.
Why do some CEO pay packages swing so dramatically year to year?
Three drivers explain almost every multi-million-dollar swing. First, multi-year equity grants — when a CEO receives a single mega-grant intended to cover three to five years, the year of the grant looks like a giant raise even though average annual pay is unchanged. Second, performance share unit (PSU) vesting — PSUs only count as compensation when performance hurdles are met, so a strong stock year can pull years of accumulated awards into one reported total. Third, pension value swings — actuarial assumptions about discount rates can move the "Change in Pension Value" line by millions in either direction without any cash actually changing hands.
What does a "biggest raise" actually mean here?
A biggest-raise entry shows the year-over-year change in total compensation as reported in the SEC Summary Compensation Table — current-year total comp minus prior-year total comp, divided by prior-year total comp. The current top raise is David Solomon at Goldman Sachs (+29.4%, from $21.3M to $27.6M). Biggest cuts work the same way in reverse.
Where does the data come from?
Every figure traces to a primary public source: SEC DEF 14A proxy statements for compensation, the corresponding 10-K for revenue and employee count, the 8-K filed within four business days of each annual meeting for say-on-pay vote results, and CRSP-equivalent split-adjusted price data for total shareholder return. There are no surveys, no private data feeds, and no proprietary smoothing — only what each company itself disclosed under SEC rules. ISS and Glass Lewis recommendations are referenced where they materially shaped a vote outcome but never substituted for the underlying disclosed numbers.
Source: U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, DEF 14A and 8-K filings via EDGAR. Public domain.
Last updated 2026-04-06 · 2 trend reports tracking 209 companies.