New report shows CEOs make 2.8 times more than CFOs

A new report released today shows that CEOs make 2.8 times more than CFOs, although the gap is narrowing.

Titled “CFOs and the C-Suite 2023,” a new CFO-focused report released by Datarails showed that the compensation of CFOs lags behind those of CEOs, CTOs, and COOs.

Datarails, the financial planning and analysis (FP&A) platform, analyzed SEC filings of the biggest US-listed companies. The analysis shows that CFOs experienced an average compensation increase of 1%, contrasting with a 6% decrease for CEOs during the same period.

Despite this, finance chiefs still face challenging job security within the C-Suite, holding the role for an average of only 3.15 years in a five-year period. Notably, 16 publicly listed companies have seen turnover of four CFOs in the past five years.

CFOs averaged $3.48 million a year, which compares to $3.8 million received by COOs, $3.82 million by CTOs, and $9.74 million by CEOs.

In 2022, the highest-paid CFO in the US was Joe Berchtold of LiveNation, an entertainment group, earning $52.4 million. This caps a lucrative year for LiveNation executives, with CEO Michael Rapino becoming the highest-earning chief executive in the US at $139 million.

The second-highest-paid CFO in 2022 was Michael J. Cavanagh of Comcast (NASDAQ:), owned by NBC Universal, with $41 million in compensation.

The report also shows that stock prices experienced an immediate -1% drop the day after the CFO’s exit was announced. Over the next 30 days, these companies faced an additional -2% decline.

However, by the 180-day mark, stock prices had returned to their previous levels. This contrasts with the larger stock market losses experienced by companies when CEOs leave.

In such cases, there was an average drop of 1% after 1 day, a drop of 4% after 30 days, and a more substantial decline of -11% after 180 days.