Women-led S&P 500 companies reported a narrower range of CEO compensation as a share of median employee pay in 2023 than the broader S&P 500, while those same companies also paid their employees more at the median, according to an analysis of the most recent data by S&P Global Market Intelligence.
Ross Stores Inc.'s CEO-to-median employee pay ratio for its Vice Chair and CEO Barbara Rentler was reported at 2,100-to-1 in 2023, the highest among female S&P 500 executives and all other CEOs of the index's companies.
However, besides Rentler, there were no other female CEOs among the companies reporting the 30 largest CEO-to-median-employee compensation ratios for the year. Meanwhile, median employee compensation for female-led S&P 500 companies was $80,647 in 2023, compared to a median pay of $78,632 for the entire S&P 500.
The median CEO-to-median employee pay ratio of 204-to-1 for female CEOs in the S&P 500 was above the 194-to-1 median ratio for the full S&P 500. Meanwhile, Essex Property Trust Inc. reported the lowest pay ratio among female CEOs at 37-to-1.
These CEO-to-median employee pay ratios among female-led companies in the S&P 500 were higher than the same respective metrics of all S&P 500 constituents in 2023. There were at least 10 male-led companies in the S&P 500 with lower pay ratios in 2023, including Tesla Inc.'s 0-to-1 ratio.
Pay ratios, employee salary at largest female-led companies
Among the 20 largest female-led S&P 500 companies by market capitalization at the end of 2023 for which public pay ratio data was available, Oracle Corp. had the lowest CEO-to-median employee pay ratio of 61-to-1. Oracle also had the largest market capitalization of the group at the end of 2023.
Vertex Pharmaceuticals Inc. reported the highest median employee salary among the top 20 companies at $247,549 while Ross Stores reported the lowest at $8,618. Median employee salary for Ross Stores was also the lowest among the entire S&P 500 in 2023 as the data reflected annual pay earned by a part-time hourly retail associate, according to a proxy filing.
The CEO-to-median employee pay ratio for Accenture PLC Chair and CEO Julie Sweet, the highest-paid female CEO in the S&P 500 in 2023, was 633-to-1.
Accenture calculated the ratio when applying a cost-of-living adjustment to compare Sweet's total adjusted compensation of $31.6 million to the company's median employee salary of $49,842. Without the cost-of-living adjustment, the ratio was 1,526:1 with an identified median employee salary of $20,670, according to a company proxy filing.
Changes to pay ratios at largest companies
Oracle Corp. reported the largest drop in CEO-to-median employee pay ratio from 2022 to 2023 among the 20 largest female-led S&P 500 companies with a 96.7% decrease. This was also among the steepest declines among the entire S&P 500.
Overall total adjusted compensation for Catz, who is also a member of the company's board, fell 96.2% year over year in 2023 compared to earnings in 2022 that were boosted by $129.3 million in option awards, according to data in a company proxy filing.
The CEO compensation ratio for Ross Stores' Rentler in 2023 climbed 84.7% year over year, the biggest jump among the top 20 female-led companies. Rentler's total adjusted compensation rose to $18.1 million in 2023 from $11.3 million in 2022, largely due to a $5.8 million payout from a non-equity company incentive plan.