Robert Newbury is a director at Willis Towers Watson. This post is based on a Willis Towers Watson publication by Mr. Newbury, Becky Hiddleston, and Erik Nelson.
Executive pay practices settled in to a new normal in 2016, characterized by modest pay increases, continued emphasis on performance-oriented compensation, and annual and long-term incentive (LTI) plan design features and metrics consistent with those of recent years.
In our annual examination of chief executive officer (CEO) pay among early proxy filers at S&P 1500 companies, we found that increases in total compensation for CEOs remained fairly moderate again last year, driven largely by uneven corporate performance, increasing bonuses and a sharp decrease in the value of stock option exercises. The analysis is based on 365 S&P 1500 companies with consistent CEOs that filed proxies disclosing 2016 pay by the end of March, as detailed in our recent press release.
