Equilar 100: The 100 Highest-Paid CEOs in 2023

Early Glance at CEO Pay Shows Upward Climb Driven by Stock Awards in 2023

April 19, 2024

Amit Batish

The 2024 edition of the Equilar 100 offers an early look at CEO compensation packages at companies with revenues of more than $1 billion. As featured in coverage from Barron’s, the study includes companies that filed annual proxy statements by March 31, considered the “half-way” point in the annual proxy season. The findings in this study are a snapshot of CEO pay trends, and with thousands of more companies filing annual proxy statements in April, a more comprehensive look will be forthcoming in several weeks after all the data is processed.

The introductory page of this feature highlights the top 10 highest-paid CEOs at Equilar 100 companies in 2023. Below the highest-paid CEO table, there is a link to view the full Equilar 100 in an interactive chart that allows you to sort by total compensation, compensation actually paid (CAP) values, revenue and other company measurements. A summary of key highlights from the report follows on this page.

	EXECUTIVE NAME COMPANY NAME (TICKER)	TOTAL COMPENSATION	CHANGE IN PAY	FYE 2023 REVENUE ($M)
1	Hock E. Tan Broadcom Inc. (AVGO)	$161,826,161	167%	$35,819
2	Nikesh Arora Palo Alto Networks, Inc. (PANW)	$151,425,203	1355%	$6,892
3	Sue Y. Nabi Coty Inc. (COTY)	$149,429,48	4100%	$5,554
4	Christopher L. Winfrey Charter Communications, Inc. (CHTR)	$89,077,078	N/A	$54,607
5	William J. Lansing Fair Isaac Corporation (FICO)	$66,349,962	251%	$1,513
6	Timothy D. Cook Apple Inc. (AAPL)	$63,209,845	-36%	$383,285
7	Jagtar Singh Chaudhry Zscaler, Inc. (ZS)	$57,775,483	39%	$1,616
8	Hamid R. Moghadam Prologis, Inc. (PLD)	$50,891,597	6%	$8,023
9	Satya Nadella Microsoft Corporation (MSFT)	$48,512,537	-12%	$211,915
10	Shantanu Narayen Adobe Inc. (ADBE)	$44,932,578	42%	$19,409

Key Trends and Takeaways

• CEO pay outpaced previous year’s growth. In 2023, median total compensation for Equilar 100 CEOs jumped to $23.7 million, marking an 11.4% increase in pay for the same set of companies in 2022. Last year’s Equilar 100 CEOs* experienced an increase of just 7.7% from the previous year. Broadcom CEO Hock E. Tan was awarded a total pay package of nearly $162 million, making him the highest-paid CEO on this year’s Equilar 100 list. Tan was one of three CEOs to be awarded a nine-figure pay package—Nikesh Arora (Palo Alto Networks) and Sue Y. Nabi (Coty) were the other two. The compensation packages of all three CEOs primarily consisted of long-term equity awards.

• A jump in stock award values drove CEO pay increase. The median value of Equilar 100 stock awards surged by 20.9% from $12.6 million to $15.3 million in 2023. Stock awards generally comprise the largest portion of a CEO’s pay package, and any fluctuations in stock award values will impact overall total compensation. Among Equilar 100 CEOs in 2023, stock awards made up nearly 65% of median total compensation. Of course, the disclosed figures reflect the grant date values of awards, compensation that the CEOs will not see until a future date after reaching certain performance goals set forth by their compensation committees.

  Overall, total cash compensation increased by roughly 4% to $6.1 million, with cash bonuses increasing by 2.4% to $3.9 million. The steady uptick in cash compensation could be attributed to the 13.8% increase in median total return for Equilar 100 companies in 2023, propelling companies to reward their CEOs for strong financial and market gains during the year. The only two pay components that saw a decline in 2023 were perks (down 21.8% to $358,467) and base salary (down 0.7% to $1.4 million).

• CAP figures in year two. Last year marked the first that required companies to disclose both tabular and narrative information reflecting the relationship between compensation actually paid to a company’s named executive officers (NEOs) and the company’s financial performance. In 2023, the median CAP value for Equilar 100 CEOs was $31.1 million. While it’s difficult to compare the two figures, the value is 31.3% larger than the median disclosed total compensation in this year’s study.

• The CEO Pay Ratio continues to climb. The median Equilar 100 CEO Pay Ratio was 300:1 in 2023, which is up 4.2% from last year’s listed ratio of 288:1. Overall, compensation for the median Equilar 100 employee was $84,829 in 2023.

• Eight women make the highest-paid list. Similar to last year’s study, eight women are featured among the Equilar 100, earning a median total compensation of $24.4 million. Unlike last year, the 2024 edition of the Equilar 100 features a woman among the top 10 highest-paid CEOs—Sue Y. Nabi, CEO at Coty, who was awarded a total compensation package of nearly $150 million in 2023.

• Apple continues its streak of highest revenue. For the fifth consecutive year, Apple topped the Equilar 100 list with the highest revenue—the Company achieved a fiscal year-end revenue of over $383 billion in 2023. Following suit from last year’s study, Microsoft came in second at $211.9 billion. However, for the second consecutive year, the median revenue for Equilar 100 companies declined, falling to $25.1 billion in 2023. Median revenue for the Equilar 100 was $28.5 billion in 2022 and $43.8 billion in 2021.

*Note: While many of the companies in the Equilar 100 are consistent from year to year, due to changes in revenue and floating filing dates the list is not the same every year.

Contact



Amit Batish

Senior Director of Content at Equilar

Amit Batish, Senior Director of Content & Communications at Equilar, authored this post. Courtney Yu, Director of Research, and MaryClare Colombo, Senior Research Analyst, provided data and analysis. Please contact Amit Batish at abatish@equilar.com.

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