Finance Exec Raises Smaller but Intact

For financial executives who received salary bumps in 2008, the raises were slightly lower, on average, than in 2007. However, most executives still reported a bonus in 2008, according to Financial Executives International’s Financial Executive Compensation Survey, a year-to-year comparison of compensation—including salaries, bonuses, long-term incentives and retirement benefits—of nearly 1,000 financial executives, of which half were CFOs, from both public and private companies.

Nearly all of the respondents (94%) reported receiving a 2008 bonus. While bonus awards varied, 18% reported a bonus between 21% and 30% of their base salary, and another 17% reported a bonus between 31% and 40% of their base salary.

The base salaries of public and private company financial executives were proportionate to their companies’ annual revenues. Public companies continued to award higher salary increases (4%) than private companies (3.4%).

For the 122 public company CFOs, the average annual compensation reported was $410,100, of which $296,800 was base salary. For the 344 private company CFOs, the average total compensation was $257,800, of which $199,600 was base salary.

Source: Financial Executives Research Foundation, www.ferf.org.