Equity compensation, comprising grants of stock awards and stock option awards, is the largest component of CEO pay at S&P 500 companies.

Boards align the incentives of CEOs with shareholders through shared stock ownership and stock performance goals.

In 2021, 71% of S&P 500 CEO pay packages was awarded in equity compensation–an increase of seven percentage points from 2017 when equity was 64% of total compensation.

Stock awards made up the majority of equity compensation, accounting for 54.6% of total CEO pay in 2021.

Our latest CompanyIQ^® report using our Executive Compensation Database analyzes equity in S&P 500 CEO compensation from 2017-2021.