Dive Brief:

• Roughly two-thirds of companies responding to Pearl Meyer’s annual executive pay practices survey expect similar year-over-year salary increases, but there are signs wage growth may be slowing, according to the findings released Dec. 19. Specifically, only 9% of the respondents expect higher percentage rates, compared to 40% last year. By contrast, 24% expect lower-level increases, compared to 6% in 2023.
• The survey also found that a growing number of compensation committees are becoming more involved with broader human capital oversight, especially among publicly traded companies. Similar to last year, around 20% of companies expect to include environmental, social and governance-related issues as a stand-alone metric in their incentive plans, although just 5% expect to add new ESG metrics, a noticeable decrease from 12% for 2023. Additionally, slightly more than 40% are considering changing their short-term incentive plans for senior execs, most commonly adding financial metrics.
• “Salaries remain above historical norms, but it is a different landscape from this time last year,” Bill Reilly, the advising firm’s managing director who developed the survey, stated in a press release. “Things are certainly cooling off, consistent with declining overall inflation levels, but the outlook is not gloomy.”

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