Executive Summary
To shape their pay strategy, internationally active companies cannot only look to practices in their home country. They need to monitor cross-border and global trends.
Around the world, executive compensation programs and related governance frameworks for publicly traded issuers are shaped by a wide range of stakeholder interests, including regulators, proxy advisors, and investors.
In this report, we explore recent trends and best practices in compensation governance across major markets, leveraging the expertise of the GECN Group subject matter experts. The GECN Group is composed of leading independent firms across six continents known for their strategic, analytical, and business-aligned approach to pay and governance. The report also provides perspectives on how governance practices have evolved since the GECN Group’s initial 2017 study of global executive compensation governance trends.
Looking ahead, executive pay governance appears to be moving in a broadly similar direction across most markets, with greater scrutiny of outcomes, disclosure, investor engagement, risk alignment, and board judgment. The United States (US), however, stands apart, as regulators and investors under the current administration are pursuing an agenda to make the public market more attractive to companies. Similarly, the United Kingdom (UK), historically a leader in governance practices, has become more open to reducing regulatory burdens to improve the UK market’s global competitiveness. Despite this broad convergence, the mechanisms and degree of scrutiny continue to differ by jurisdiction, reflecting local regulation, ownership structures, proxy advisor influence, and stewardship maturity.
