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1. CEO Remuneration 2022 Report: CEOs in a Post Covid Era - What Matters Most
2. Executive Summary - CEO Remuneration 2022: CEOs in a Post COVID Era - What Matters Most

Looking at the dynamics of CEO Pay from the lens of global corporations, we specifically consider how CEO remuneration has responded to changes in firms' revenue due to global inflation. The financials of the world’s leading firms suggest that turnover rose during an evolutionary phase emerging after the epoch crises of COVID -19, which led to the global socioeconomic system of various actors at all levels adapting to an irreversible work model.

The disclosure of remuneration packages across the globe showed an indirect relationship between CEO Pay and firms’ revenue on average. For instance, US firms have high CEOs compensation on average but generate low revenue. On the contrary, European firms generate high revenue but low CEO compensation package. We consider the relationship between CEO compensation and firms’ revenue within the context of the business's industry, ownership interests, and pay levels.

While CEOs pay diverges from firms’ revenue on average, sectoral analysis of the relationship reveals a direct linkage in tech-enabled sectors. As firms generate more turnover, CEOs remuneration trail the firm's growth in the technology and telecommunications sectors. Nonetheless, a few other sectors mirror the indirect relationship between CEOs pay and revenue across different continents. 

Amongst the leading global CEOs in the technological space, Tesla’s CEO has the highest pay packet, with a more significant portion in stocks as pay. The firm operates an equity-based compensation model, which attracts high incentives for the CEOs contingent on exceptional performance.

Average CEO Remuneration vs Revenue

The top leading companies in the United States dominated the global corporate hierarchy regarding executive compensation in 2021. European companies ranked second, while Asia's firms ranked last.

Compared with the company’s revenue, CEO remuneration did not move in the same direction as earnings. European firms, which ranked second in pay packets with an average remuneration of about US$4.6m, topped the global revenue hierarchy. At the same time, US companies recorded a lower revenue than their high remuneration in 2021 (see chart 1 below).

Chart 1: