Spencer Stuart’s analysis of director compensation for S&P 500 companies based on 2022 proxy statements reveals these and other notable benchmarking statistics and year-over-year trends:
Board Leadership
- 91% of companies with an independent board chair (35% of the S&P 500 have an independent chair) provide additional compensation for that role. The average incremental compensation for that role was about $164K.
- 82% of companies with a lead or presiding director pay an additional fee for that role, with the average incremental compensation at approximately $44K.
Committee Pay
- 97% of boards provide committee chair retainers. Committee chair retainers average approximately $29K, $23K, and $19K, for the audit committee, compensation committee, and nominating committee, respectively.
- Nearly half of companies provide retainers for committee members, averaging approximately $14K, $11K, and $10K for the audit, compensation, and nominating committees, respectively.
- Just 6% of boards pay committee meeting fees, compared to 8% last year and 33% in 2012. The average per meeting fee is $1,775.
Total average director pay varies significantly by company sector and size.
Access additional resources on our Director Compensation page.
This post first appeared in the weekly Society Alert!