Key Findings

  • The Conference Board said Monday that the median compensation for female CEOs and CFOs at S&P 500 companies will be at least 5% higher than their male counterparts this year.
  • Meanwhile, women still lag far behind men in advancing to the top positions at large companies, holding only 7.9% of CEO roles in the S&P 500. The data comes from a report by the Conference Board, co-authored with FW Cook and ESGAUGE. In 2020, women held 6.4% of CEO positions.
  • "Because women remain underrepresented in CEO roles, companies may offer more competitive compensation packages to attract and retain female leaders," said Matteo Tonello, head of benchmarking and analytics at the Conference Board. "These higher pay packages reflect both corporate efforts to improve diversity at the executive level and recognition of such scarce talent."

Deeper Analysis

According to Conference Board data, the median compensation for female CEOs at S&P 500 companies is $16.5 million, compared to $15.6 million for male CEOs, with women earning 5.37% more. The median compensation for female CFOs is $5.8 million, 8.4% higher than the $5.35 million for men.

McKinsey noted in a report last month that while women have made progress in recent decades, they are far from achieving equality in the workplace. From entry-level to senior manager to executive ranks, women lag behind men in advancement opportunities at every level of the corporate ladder.

Although women's representation in the C-suite has risen from 17% in 2015 to 29%, McKinsey, after surveying 281 organizations employing more than 10 million people, said women are still less likely than men to get entry-level jobs and their first promotion to manager. The survey is part of McKinsey's annual Women in the Workplace report.

More broadly, progress for women in wage growth, labor force participation, and advancement to senior management has stalled in recent years, according to data from the Pew Research Center. Pew noted, "Large gender gaps persist in the top positions of government and business leadership."

Pew said only 11% of Fortune 500 companies are led by female CEOs, and women hold just 30% of board seats.

Pew also noted in a February report that women's share of the 10 highest-paying occupations in the U.S.—from doctors and dentists to lawyers and pilots—has risen from 13% in 1980 to 35% last year. However, Pew pointed out that U.S. employers have made limited progress in narrowing the average income gap between men and women over the past two decades. In 2022, women earned 82 cents for every dollar earned by men, only 2 cents more than in 2002.

Conference Board data shows that among Russell 3000 companies, the median compensation for female CEOs is $6.7 million, compared to $6.1 million for men. Despite this, women lead only 6.9% of Russell 3000 companies.

"The CEO role is highly visible, and compensation arrangements at public companies are disclosed in detail," said Dana Etra, managing director at FW Cook, in an email response. "Boards are very aware of the impact of disclosures and the signals that compensation arrangements send externally. Sensitivities around the broader gender pay gap and potential perceptions of it influence board decisions on female executive compensation."

The Conference Board noted that since 2018, median compensation for female CEOs has led that of men, with the only exception being 2023, when women earned about $10,000 less than men. Since 2018, the pay advantage for women has narrowed from 8.15% to 5.37%.

Analysts at the Conference Board and FW Cook believe the trend of higher pay for female CEOs is likely to continue. Etra said, "This trend may continue in the short term," while predicting that "as the talent pipeline balances out, compensation will also balance out."