S&P 500 median CEO pay reaches $17.5 million in 2026 proxy filings

Pay growth is uneven even inside equity. Against a salary rise of about 16% in both indexes since 2021 ^[6], the Russell 3000 performance-award gain is roughly three times as fast ^[22]. Median time-based restricted stock and RSU values rose 57% in the Russell 3000 and 38% in the S&P 500 over the same period ^[5]. That puts time-based grants 6 points ahead of performance awards in the broader index and 8 points behind them in the S&P 500 ^[27]. The report adds that performance awards and time-based grants are both becoming more common while stock options recede ^[16].

Size sets the level. The $23.6 million median at companies with at least $50 billion in revenue is about 3.3 times the Russell 3000 median ^[24]. Aircraft use is where perquisites and security overlap. Among S&P 500 CEOs, 48% had reported personal use of the company aircraft, and some companies require or encourage that use for security reasons ^[11].

Higher pay did not bring more dissent. The share of Russell 3000 say-on-pay proposals below the 90% support line fell from 28% to 24% ^[23], and only 0.9% failed outright ^[8]. The report says dissent remains concentrated among a relatively small group of companies ^[9]. The text does not say which awards or perquisites drew those votes. It does say that scrutiny is concentrating around exceptional awards, above-target incentive outcomes and arrangements such as executive security ^[19], and that annual incentive outcomes shifted upward, particularly in the S&P 500 ^[17]. In our view, investors are voting on individual decisions. A committee can sit near the median and still land in the dissenting group by approving one exceptional award.

The 6% and 7% increases ran ahead of 2.7% consumer inflation at the end of 2025 by 3.3 and 4.3 points ^[25]. The setting was supportive: real GDP grew 2.1% and corporate profits from current production rose $275.7 billion ^[15], though the report says these conditions do not determine executive pay ^[18]. Stock and option awards are counted at grant-date fair value ^[13]. That is an accounting estimate, and the report says it can differ substantially from the eventual outcome because vesting, performance conditions and later share-price moves all matter ^[12]. Headline reported compensation, the report says, should not be read as cash received or realized pay ^[20].

The timing runs on a one-year lag. For most US public companies, 2026 disclosures cover FY 2025 compensation ^[21], so FY 2026 awards will appear in the 2027 filings ^[26]. They will be read against a base in which 76% of Russell 3000 say-on-pay proposals cleared 90% support, up from 72% the year before ^[7]. That is two years of data. We would not call it a trend.