Bruised Halliburton reported largest CEO-to-median employee pay ratio in 2020

Halliburton Co. reported the highest CEO-to-median employee pay ratio and fourth-lowest median employee compensation in the oil and gas sector in 2020 as the oilfield services giant struggled to rebound from record low oil prices.

CEO Jeffrey Allen Miller was paid 293 times the median annual total compensation of $76,266, the company reported in a mandated proxy statement. Miller was the third-highest paid oil and gas executive in 2020, raking in a total adjusted compensation of $22.1 million — a nearly 75% increase over his 2019 package.

Halliburton in early March 2020 furloughed some employees when its stock price plummeted after OPEC and Russia failed to reach an agreement to cut oil production. The company recorded a $2.94 billion loss for the calendar year despite recovering financially during the fourth quarter.

S&P Global Market Intelligence analyzed public disclosures for the top 22 U.S. oil and gas companies by market capitalization as of Dec. 31, 2020. The SEC requires publicly traded companies to disclose the annual compensation of their median employee and the ratio between that individual's pay and that of the CEO.

Fellow oilfield services firm Baker Hughes Co. reported the second-largest ratio of CEO to median employee pay, at 235-to-1, and the median employee's total annual compensation was $65,151.

Of the 22 oil and gas companies subject to the 2020 analysis, Energy Transfer LP reported the lowest CEO pay ratio of 0.1-to-1 and median employee compensation at $110,358, followed by Kinder Morgan Inc., which had an 8-to-1 pay ratio. Energy Transfer CEO Kelcy Warren, who stepped down Jan. 1, did not take a salary for 2020, while Kinder Morgan CEO Steven Kean's compensation primarily came from sources that were not included in this evaluation.

Refiner Valero Energy Corp. and independent driller Pioneer Natural Resources Co., meanwhile, disclosed the highest median employee pay for 2020 at $215,048 and $213,370, respectively. Schlumberger Ltd. reported the lowest median pay salary, which was $60,444.

Of the independent oil and gas drillers on the list, Cabot Oil & Gas Corp. had the highest CEO pay ratio of 187-to-1 and the third-lowest median employee compensation at $75,986. Many pure-play shale gas producers were spared the severe stock price downturn that oilier exploration and production companies experienced in 2020.

EOG Resources Inc., on the other hand, had the lowest CEO pay ratio of 49-to-1 among the independents and median compensation at $161,113.