While median executive compensation grew 2% YoY last year, one of the hidden developments was that executives who spent 3-5 years in their prior role saw a larger annual growth in compensation than others.

Executives who were in seat for that long had a median compensation growth of 13% YoY, perhaps in part because they were more in demand. They comprised 19% of newly placed executives in 2023—up from 17% in 2022. Within the C-Suite, that figure jumped from 18% in 2022 to 21% in 2023.

That gain in market share, if you will, came at the expense of executives who had spent less than 3 years in their prior roles, suggesting that companies prioritized recruiting executives who had a more established run. At the same time, comp for those executives slipped slightly in 2023.

While we don’t yet have final data for Q1, we plan to look at how this development has progressed to start the year.