CFO pay rose 8% as companies leaned harder on equity awards

Chief financial officers at large companies received an 8% increase in total direct compensation in 2025, according to Compensation Advisory Partners. The data points to a tighter link between CFO and CEO pay as companies use long-term equity to keep senior leaders in place.

CAP examined 140 companies with annual revenue of at least $5 billion, Fortune reported. The companies in the review had median revenue of $15.6 billion, and the dataset covered executives who had been in their roles for at least two years.

CEO pay rose 9% on the same total direct compensation basis, according to CAP. Fortune reported that it was the first time in several years that increases for the two roles had come so close.

Performance and retention shaped the pay increases

CAP tied the compensation gains partly to stronger company results. In the group studied, median revenue rose 6% and median operating income rose 8%, according to the firm.

Kelly Malafis, a founding partner at CAP and co-author of the report, told Fortune that CEO and CFO pay tends to follow corporate performance. She also said companies appear to be placing more weight on leadership stability, beginning with the CEO role.

The findings show that CFO pay remains linked to CEO compensation even as the finance chief’s job has expanded. Fortune reported that CFOs are taking on broader duties in areas such as enterprise transformation, data strategy and artificial intelligence.

Long-term incentives took a larger role

The sharpest change came in long-term incentives, according to CAP. Awards in that category rose 12% for CFOs and 9% for CEOs in 2025, close to twice the prior year’s growth rate.

Long-term incentives now account for 63% of the average CFO pay package and 73% of the average CEO package, CAP found. These awards typically depend on future performance and vesting schedules, which means executives must remain at the company and meet targets to receive the full value.

Malafis told Fortune that long-term incentives can help companies retain executives while keeping their interests tied to shareholders. Fortune also noted that CFO turnover has continued, adding another reason boards may be leaning on equity-based retention tools.

Base pay remained a smaller part of the overall package. CAP found that CFOs received a median salary increase of 3.7% in 2025, compared with 2.1% for CEOs. Fortune reported that it was the first year in three that more than half of CEOs received salary increases.

Outlier packages remain rare

Despite the larger role CFOs now play, CAP found that CFO compensation still sits at about one-third of CEO pay. Fortune reported that this ratio has been stable for roughly a decade.

Some finance chiefs have received far larger packages. Fortune cited proxy materials showing Tesla CFO Vaibhav Taneja recorded about $139 million in total compensation for 2024, almost all of it in stock-based awards.

Fortune also reported that Alphabet and Google CFO Anat Ashkenazi and AMD CFO Jean Hu received packages worth tens of millions of dollars. Those packages were driven by sign-on grants and performance equity connected to AI and chip-related growth plans, according to Fortune.

CAP’s report found that such cases do not reflect the broader market. For most companies, expanded CFO duties have not yet led to a major rewrite of pay structures.

Artificial intelligence also remains limited in incentive plans, Malafis told Fortune. Some companies are adding AI or digital transformation goals to short-term bonus plans, but she said companies are still working out how those goals connect to strategy and financial performance.

This story draws on original reporting from Fortune.