The Harvard Law School Forum on Corporate Governance https://corpgov.law.harvard.edu The leading online blog in the fields of corporate governance and financial regulation. Thu, 17 Sep 2026 11:32:52 +0000 en-US hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=6.5.10 https://corpgov.law.harvard.edu/wp-content/uploads/2024/02/cropped-photography-4-e1706898544564-1-32x32.png The State of U.S. Executive Pay Today – The Harvard Law School Forum on Corporate Governance https://corpgov.law.harvard.edu 32 32 The State of U.S. Executive Pay Today https://corpgov.law.harvard.edu/2026/09/17/the-state-of-u-s-executive-pay-today/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=the-state-of-u-s-executive-pay-today https://corpgov.law.harvard.edu/2026/09/17/the-state-of-u-s-executive-pay-today/#respond Thu, 17 Sep 2026 11:30:18 +0000 https://corpgov.law.harvard.edu/?p=183880?d=20260916144154EDT Posted by Stephen F. O'Byrne, Shareholder Value Advisors, Inc., on Thursday, September 17, 2026
Editor's Note:

Stephen F. O’Byrne is the President of Shareholder Value Advisors, Inc. This post is based on his Shareholder Value Advisors memorandum.

The basic objectives of executive pay have been the same since the rise of large corporations in the late 19th century. Shareholders want to give managers strong incentives to increase shareholder value while retaining key talent and limiting shareholder cost. Today, it’s widely accepted that these three objectives can be achieved by managing two dimensions of executive pay: the percent of pay at risk and the company’s target pay percentile.

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