The median pay for CFOs at the nation’s top firms rose 7% last year, trumping the 5% increase in earnings before interest and taxes, according to a new report from the financial services consulting firm, Mercer LLC .
The midpoint of the direct compensation of CFOs at S&P 500 companies in 2013 was $3.13 million. That includes base salary, short-term payouts, and the potential value of long-term incentives. As a percentage of their CEOs total direct compensation, CFOs earned 34%, all but unchanged since 2011.
At the largest firms in the Mercer survey, those in the top 75 percentile of the S&P 100, CFOs median was $7.8 million last year in total direct compensation. That was a 7.8% increase over 2012′s $7.2 million, but even so it’s still less than the $8 million in 2011.
Base salary was significantly lower than the overall package, representing 22% of total compensation for the S&P 500 as a whole. But for CFOs at the S&P 100, base salary median was only 17%. In all cases, long term incentives made up the largest share of a CFOs comp package.
“Pressure from shareholder advisory services and advocacy groups, as well as repercussions from say-on-pay votes and stockholders’ increasing access to pay information, combine to ensure that variable pay continues to be a key driver at the executive level,” commented Stephen Mork, partner with Mercer’s Executive Rewards practice.
