ESOP Company Execs Paid Less Than Their Peers

Based on a soon-to-be available NCEO survey of 204 ESOPs, executives at ESOP companies are paid significantly less than their peers. Using national data from CompData, we found, for, instance that total CEO compensation at companies with fewer than 100 employees was about $211,000, compared to $380,000 for non-ESOP companies, while for companies with more than 100 employees, the comparison was $329,000 to $380,000. Similar differences in scale were reported for other officer levels, where ESOP company pay ranged from about $100,000 for CFOs in smaller ESOPs to $150,000 for COOs, compared to a range from $163,000 to $285,000 in non-ESOP comparison companies. For companies with more than 100 employees, the range for non-CEO top executives in smaller ESOPs was between $164,000 and $226,000, compared to $218,000 to $421,000 in peer companies. The ESOP data, however, do not include the often very substantial ESOP account balances these executives may accrue.