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July 21, 20260 citationsOpen Access

The CEO Pay-vs-Delivery Scorecard, v2 (S&P 500 edition): a reproducible, descriptive audit of what the S&P 500's highest-paid CEOs took versus what they delivered

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NMN Milton

Key Points

  • This audit examines how the compensation of S&P 500 CEOs compares to the performance delivered to shareholders. It aims to provide a comprehensive overview of realized versus granted pay.
  • Utilized SEC EDGAR Pay-versus-Performance pipeline to analyze 2,741 company-year rows across 501 S&P-500 tickers.
  • Compared realized pay against granted pay and peer-relative shareholder returns for a large sample of CEOs.
  • Documented limitations of data collection and ensured transparency in analytical methods.
  • 46.5% of CEOs outperformed their peer index over five years, with similar results to the previous S&P-100 version.
  • Average granted compensation decreased significantly from $28.4 million to $17.9 million in the latest year.
  • 17.4% of companies experienced underwhelming total shareholder returns, with some showing no positive compensation in the latest year.

Abstract

The S v2's contribution is the automated spine plus the population statistics. Coverage is honest about its edges: a 7-company manual tail is documented by cause (three image-based proxies with no machine-readable table, one DEF 14C information-statement filer, one company with no discoverable DEF 14A, one with no PEO compensation tags, and one 2025 merger entity with no annual proxy yet), and the one filer-error erratum from v0 (a mis-signed Capital One CAP fact) carries forward as a keyed correction. Caveats stand: Compensation Actually Paid is an accounting fair-value re-mark, not cash; total shareholder return is not caused by the CEO; the peer group is the company's own choice. Descriptive analysis, not investment advice. Disclosure: the author holds no direct position in any company named; a workplace defined-contribution pension may hold some of these names indirectly through pooled funds the author does not direct.

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Cite This Study

N Milton (2026) studied this question.

synapsesocial.com/papers/6a5f0bea86a4235cc1619871https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.21445815
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