Executive Compensation

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What is Executive Compensation?

Executive Compensation (EC) is dealing with the pay or remuneration of directors, officers, and executives of a firm in return for fulfilling their often complex, strenuous and important duties. EC should be considered as one, though important, mechanism of Corporate Governance.

Components of Board Remuneration / Executive Compensation Categories

The following main remuneration types or categories can be distinguished:

Fixed (base) components:

• Salary
  
  • Often benchmarked by comparing the salary with a reference group (peer group) of similar companies.
• Perquisites (paid expenses), including:
  • Retirement plan
  • Health insurance
  • Limousine with chauffeur
  • Private usage of company buildings
  • Private usage of company airplane
  • Private usage of company boat
  • Loans with a low interest rate
  • Luxurious office furnishings
  • Personal security
  • Memberships (golf club)
  • Removal expenses
  • Compensation for personal tax advice
  • Various other allowances
• Insurance (e.g. Directors and Officers Liability Insurance)
• Welcome Scheme
  • Golden Hello
• Exit Scheme
  • Golden Handshake
  • Golden Parachute

Variable (pay per performance) components:

• Short-term Incentives
  • Bonuses
    • Mostly paid at end of book year.
    • Based on performance criteria that have been established beforehand:
      • Financial criteria, e.g.:
        • Earnings per Share
        • EBITDA
        • Working Capital
        • Economic Value Added / Economic Margin
      • Other criteria
      • The criteria may or may not be different per individual role of the officer.
    • The minimum and maximum size of the bonus can be some percentage of the fixed salary (for example from 0% - 250% of the target performance)
    • Mostly a tiered bonus system is used, meaning that there has to be some minimal performance before any bonus will be paid and that higher performances are paid progressively.
    • Payment can be in cash, shares or options
  • Call Options (see below)
    • These should be regarded as long or short-term incentives depending on their exact terms and conditions.
• Long-term Incentives
  • Call Options
    • These give the executive the right to buy a certain amount of shares against a predetermined strike price (typically the actual share price at the moment of giving the call options.
    • The length of the option contract can vary. Typically 10 years. After this period the options have no value.
    • If at some point in the future the share price exceeds the strike price, then the executive may exercise his options.
    • Often there is a non-exercise period (vesting restriction) during which the options may not yet be exercised. For example 3 years.
  • Shares
    • Ordinary shares: the executive receives some number of ordinary shares.
    • Time Vested Restricted Stock: often there is a restriction that the executive has to wait a number of years (10) before he receives the shares, or before he may sell them.
    • Performance Restricted Stock: a form of restricted stock in which the executive only receives the shares if he achieves some target (such as some level of stock prices increase plus dividends over a number of years).
    • Stock Appreciation Rights: the executive receives in cash the difference between the stock price at the end of the period minus the stock price at the beginning of the period.

Pay per Performance?

• Proponents of stock options claim variable pay (and in particular options) align the interests of the executives with those from the shareholders, thus diminishing the agency problem.
• Critics claim that stock options contribute to accounting manipulation (earnings management) and gaming (taking excessive risk). This effect is strongest if the value of the variable pay is extremely high and if the performance criteria are not sophisticated enough.
• A problem with variable executive pay (in particular with options) is that there is no 'bonus malus'. There is only a potential up-side gain (if the stock price goes up) for the executive, but no downside risk: if the stock price goes down, the option simply isn't exercised.
• The performance criteria are sometimes adjusted during the period to compensate the board in case of unfavorable circumstances.
• Likewise, sometimes bonuses are rewarded even if the performance criteria have not been met.

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Information Sources Various sources of information regarding Executive Compensation. Here you will find powerpoints, videos, news, etc. to use in your own lectures and workshops. The Issues Around CEO Compensation in the US Executive Compensation, Executive Performance Management, Executive Pay This presentation deals with the issues arising when setting rewards for CEO’s and includes the following sections: 1. ... Long-term Performance Based Incentives for Executives Executive Compensation, Incentives This presentation provides an overview of the different types of long-term incentives for executives in businesses. The ... Social-Exchange Theory and Organizational Support Theory and their Role in Employee Motivation Initial Understanding of Perceived Organizational Support Lecture about Social Exchange Theory and Organizational Support Theory and the role they play in Employee Motivation. ... Ways to Handle Agency Theory Issues in Executive Compensation Executive Compensation, Performance Management, Corporate Governance, Agency Theory This presentation elaborates on the agency problem in CEO compensation and how to best deal with and mitigate those issu... Executive Compensation: Risk Factors and Ways to Manage Them Executive Compensation, Performance Management, Corporate Governance Presentation about CEO compensation with special attention to dealing with risks and its influence on those packages. Th... Controlling as a Management Function Controlling, Management Control Presentation about controlling as a management activity includes the following sections: 1. Why Management Controlling?...

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