2021–2022 Director Compensation Report

Foreword

The National Association of Corporate Directors (NACD) is proud to present the 23rd annual analysis of nonemployee director compensation, produced in collaboration with leading compensation consultancy, Pearl Meyer. 

The report provides a comprehensive perspective on director-pay practices across a wide range of industries and company sizes. The study is based on 1,400 companies across 24 industries that had filed a proxy statement or any other SEC filing containing director-compensation information for the fiscal year ending between Feb. 1, 2020, and Jan. 31, 2021. Each analyzed company was assigned to one of 24 industries according to their industry classification within Standard & Poor’s Global Industry Classification Standard (GICS). Data for the report is provided by Main Data Group.

Year-over-year comparisons are made with respect to the 2020–2021 Director Compensation Report. We have attempted to maintain a consistent sample of companies to more easily identify changes in director compensation as compared to the prior year; however, we have made minor changes to the list of companies analyzed to ensure sufficient industry coverage. This provides an equivalent number of companies in each size category, while also accounting for organizational size and growth.

Companies are assigned to one of five size categories based on their annual revenues. A complete list of companies included in this year’s analysis can be found at the end of this report.

Lists of NACD’s Five Principles for director pay and the associated Leading Practices are provided on page 5. Commentary on nonemployee director compensation trends is included throughout the report.

Ryan Hourihan, managing director at Pearl Meyer, is the primary author of this report, managing the research, trends analysis, and content development. In the development of this report, Veronica Glowacki, Stephen Moeller, Alishan Badarpura, Michelle Hua,  Anne Nguyen, Ben Quint, and Davis Steinbrecher collectively managed the analytical requirements.

Inquiries regarding the data and analysis in this report should be directed to nacddirectorpay@pearlmeyer.com.