CFO Slice

A new report from  Compensation Advisory Partners (CAP), a consulting firm, examines 2024 compensation outcomes for chief financial officers relative to chief executives. It looked at 155 public companies with a median revenue of $12.6bn and fiscal years ending between August 31st 2024, and January 1st 2025. CAP’s analysis found that for executives in the data set who did receive a bump to their salary, the median increase was 5.7% for CFOs and 4.1% for CEOs. The previous year, CFOs’ median increase was 5%, and 5.1% the year before that. “We were expecting salary increases to start shifting downward, given the labor market,” Kelly Malafis, founding partner at CAP told me. “But salary increases are likely to remain steady for CFOs.” The report suggests that this stability is being driven by high turnover due to retirements or departures and strong demand for finance chiefs. CEOs still lead in total compensation, according to CAP data. Over the past decade, CFO total compensation has averaged about 33% of CEO compensation, the firm’s research shows. The median tenure for these positions is typically around seven years, said Roman Beleuta, principal at CAP. “Every time there’s a reset, you’re kind of resetting the bar again,” he explained. “That’s why that ratio stays at about a third.”