2022 ESOP Executive Compensation Survey Report Now Available

The NCEO’s 2022 ESOP Executive Compensation Survey report is now available. We extend our sincere gratitude to all of our survey respondents! We encourage all respondents to use their discount codes, sent via email, to receive 75% off purchase of the report.

The report draws on data from 380 ESOP companies surveyed online in June–August 2022. The survey collected detailed information on base pay, cash incentives, stock-based compensation, and retirement contributions (including both the ESOP and other retirement benefits) for eight common executive positions at ESOP companies.

The survey report includes dollar compensation amounts for each position and compensation category at the 10th, 25th, 50th, 75th, and 90th percentiles, with subgroups by company size, industry, percentage of ESOP ownership, age of the ESOP, and S/C corporation status.

This year’s survey also asked companies about the impact of labor market trends and inflation. Some key findings include:

The impacts of labor market issues were most pronounced at the nonmanagement level:

• 71% of respondents reported difficulty attracting/retaining employees at the nonmanagement level.
• 79% of respondents reported base pay increases for employees at the nonmanagement level.
• 35% of respondents added signing bonuses for employees at the nonmanagement level.

Respondents reported fewer difficulties in attracting/retaining executives and top management:

• 8% of respondents reported difficulty attracting/retaining executives, and 23% reported difficulties attracting/retaining top management employees.

Over two-thirds of respondents reported feeling optimistic about their firm’s sustainability:

• 72% of respondents reported either feeling much more optimistic or slightly more optimistic about the sustainability of their company than before the COVID pandemic, despite difficulties caused by the pandemic and the labor market.

See the ESOP Executive Compensation Survey report page for more information or to purchase the report. For any questions about the report, please contact the NCEO research team at research@nceo.org.