2015 Private Companies’ CEO Salary Increase By Industry
For much of 2015, one of the hottest topics for private companies was valuations and how many thought they were getting out of control. That conversation has shifted—tech stocks are performing poorly, affecting the value of their still-private competitors and many are speculating which of the unicorns will take major hits through either a down round or a haircut IPO. Exit prospects for private, VC-backed companies are uncertain, and some of the executives leading these companies may be feeling the heat. So, how have these trends affected the salaries of private company CEOs? Let’s take a look at 2015 salary increases by industry. The data comes from the Thelander Year-End Merit Increase & Option Pool Survey.
- CEO increases are much more stable for biotech and medical device companies than tech companies.
- The average increase for both biotech and medical device CEOs went down slightly from 2014 to 2015.
- Tech CEOs tended to get very high increases or no increases at all.
- Tech CEOs were more likely to get increases greater than 15% in 2014 and 2015, especially in 2015.
- They were also much more likely to get zero increase (median increase for tech CEOs in 2014 and 2015 was 0.0%).
Average % Salary Increase
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