Duke Energy reports largest CEO-to-median employee pay ratio in 2022

Duke Energy Corp. reported the largest CEO-to-median employee pay ratio in 2022 at 171-to-1, with the head of the Charlotte, NC-headquartered company also the second-highest paid utility chief executive that year.

S&P Global Market Intelligence analyzed public disclosures for the top 20 US electric utilities by market capitalization as of Dec. 30, 2022.

Duke, Southern Co., Sempra and American Electric Power Co. Inc. reported the highest CEO-to-median employee pay ratios in their proxy statements.

Lynn Good, chair, president and CEO of Duke, received total adjusted compensation of about $21 million in 2022, a nearly 30% increase from 2021. The total compensation of Duke's median employee in 2022 was $125,140, the company reported in its proxy statement.

Atlanta-headquartered Southern, which employed the nation's highest-paid utility executive in 2022, reported a CEO-to-median employee pay ratio of 167-to-1.

Then-CEO Thomas Fanning received total adjusted compensation of $24 million in 2022, including $18.1 million in stock awards, according to a separate analysis of the 10 highest-paid US utility executives. Fanning is now executive chairman after stepping down in May following more than a decade as chairman, president and CEO of the investor-owned utility.

The annual total compensation of Southern's median employee, identified as a plant operator at one of its regulated utilities, was $143,500, the company reported in its proxy statement.

Multi-utility Sempra reported a CEO-to-median employee pay ratio of 140-to-1 in 2022 based on the median employee's annual total compensation of $132,841.

Chairman, President and CEO Jeffrey Martin received total adjusted compensation of $16.7 million. The total compensation in the analysis does not include a change in pension value of about $1.9 million.

Nicholas Akins, the long-time chair, president and CEO of American Electric Power (AEP), received total adjusted compensation of $16.2 million in 2022 as the Ohio investor-owned utility reported a CEO-to-median employee pay ratio of 137-to-1.

The 2022 annual total compensation of AEP's median employee was $119,860, according to the company's proxy statement. The total compensation in the analysis does not include a change in pension value of about $200,000 for Akins, who is now executive chair of AEP.

The median CEO pay ratio for the 20 largest US electric utilities was 80-to-1 for 2022, and median employee compensation was $132,171, according to the analysis.

PG&E Corp. reported the highest median employee compensation in 2022 at $177,477. Dominion Energy Inc. reported the lowest at $105,193.

Exelon Corp. reported the smallest CEO-to-median employee pay ratio of 52-to-1 in 2022. Calvin Butler Jr. is the Chicago utility's new CEO, replacing Christopher Crane, who retired at the end of 2022.

The total annual compensation for Exelon's median employee in 2022 was $143,354, according to the company's proxy statement.

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