While tech royalty like Elon Musk, Tim Cook and Satya Nadella tend to dominate headlines (and paychecks), the crown for America’s highest-paid CEO in 2024 goes to Jim Anderson, the relatively low-profile chief executive of Coherent Corp., a company better known in semiconductor and laser tech circles than on X.
Anderson took home a jaw-dropping $101.5 million last year, according to the Equilar 100 list, which tracks CEO compensation among US public companies with over $1 billion in revenue. That paycheck made him the only executive on the list to break into the elusive nine-digit club and it wasn’t from a fat salary or perks. Nearly all (99.4%) of his compensation came in the form of stock awards.
Anderson only joined Coherent in mid-2024 after stepping down as CEO of Lattice Semiconductor. His departure made Lattice shares plummet 16%, while Coherent’s stock rallied 23% on the news, a clear signal that Wall Street expects Anderson to bring the same magic to Coherent.
Coming in second on the list of highest-paid CEOs was Starbucks’ Brian Niccol, who received $95.8 million after assuming his role in September 2024. Like Anderson, over 90% of his package was made up of long-term equity awards.
This year’s data reveals continued growth in CEO compensation. Median pay rose 9.5% year over year, driven largely by a dramatic 40.5% jump in stock awards, from $13.2 million in 2023 to $18.6 million in 2024. These awards now make up nearly three-quarters of total CEO compensation.
Meanwhile, cash pay remained relatively flat. Median cash compensation increased only 2%, with base salaries slipping 0.5% and bonuses ticking up just 0.2%. Interestingly, CEO perks rose sharply by 16.9% to a median of $452,730.
In terms of corporate scale, Walmart overtook Apple as the highest-revenue company on the Equilar list, reporting $648.1 billion, outpacing Apple’s $391 billion. The median revenue of companies on the list stood at $24.7 billion.
As companies increasingly tie executive pay to long-term performance and stock growth, the gap between median and top-tier CEO compensation continues to widen.
