Board committee member pay: Audit leads, and the gap holds over time
Our 2025 Board of Directors Analysis reviewed proxy statements from a sample of over 2,200 US publicly-traded companies, examining how member compensation differs across the audit, compensation/HR, and governance/nominating committees from 2021 through 2025.
Audit committee members are paid the most, and the ranking among committees has stayed consistent.
Across both indices, audit committee members hold the top spot for every year from 2021 to 2025. Median total compensation for audit members held steady at $15,000 throughout the period in both the S&P 100 and the S&P 500.
Compensation/HR committee members sit in the middle. In the S&P 500, their median rose from $10,000 in 2021 to $12,000 by 2023 and held there through 2025. Governance/nominating members are paid the least, with an S&P 500 median that held flat at $10,000 every year.
The ordering audit ≥ compensation ≥ governance is most clearly separated in the S&P 500. S&P 100 medians move more year to year, reflecting smaller committee samples.
Executive pay levels and pay programs are continuously under scrutiny by shareholders of publicly-traded companies.
We have Executive Compensation specialists that advise clients in the United States, Canada, and dozens of other markets globally. We help clients develop the right compensation structures for their executives and boards using a market-informed, individually-tailored approach.
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