Below is an excerpt from ISS-Corporate’s recently released paper “CEO Perquisites: What a Small Component of Pay Reveals About Corporate Trends”. The full paper is available for download from ISS-Corporate’s resources page.
CEO perquisites (or “perks”) are a small but critical component of executive compensation. While benefits such as company cars or airplanes, security services, relocation assistance and financial planning are broadly accepted, they have faced mounting scrutiny from shareholders and the media, particularly when they are seen as excessive or have an unclear connection to company performance.
A close examination of perquisites can provide insights into broader compensation policies and corporate trends. ISS-Corporate analyzed CEO perquisite usage and magnitude in fiscal year 2024 using pay data of Russell 3000 companies that held annual general meetings during the first 10 months of 2025. Our examination focuses on conventional CEO perquisites among U.S. companies – such as personal use of corporate aircraft or security services.
Key Takeaways
- The prevalence of CEO perks remains stable, with approximately 43 percent of companies amongst the Russell 3000 employing them. Notably, over 70 percent of S&P 500 companies provided at least one perk to their CEO in 2024, reaching a 5-year peak for the index.
- While perquisites may not play a determining role in investor decisions to support Say-on-Pay (MSOP) proposals, companies that provide larger aggregate perquisites tend to have lower MSOP vote support.
- The prevalence of security perquisites continues to increase for the S&P 500 and Russell 3000, with the largest annual increases in prevalence seen in 2024 for both indexes over a five-year period. With growing concerns about CEO security, the use of this benefit is expected to continue increasing.
By:
Christian Darmanin, Compensation and Governance Advisor, ISS-Corporate
Samantha Greenwald, Compensation and Governance Advisor, ISS-Corporate
Kevin Kee Kim, Compensation and Governance Advisor, ISS-Corporate
