Looking Ahead to Executive Pay Practices in 2027

Pearl Meyer’s “Looking Ahead to Executive Pay Practices in 2027” is an annual, online survey and a valuable compensation planning tool. This year’s survey was conducted between late August and October of 2026, with total participation from 177 companies, including 87 publicly traded, 67 private-for-profit, and 23 not-for-profit (NFP) organizations. As with prior surveys, responses are broken out separately by respondent type (employee vs. board member), ownership type, industry, and company size.

This year’s survey addresses key topics associated with the current environment, including the anticipated impact of various macroeconomic factors on company performance and executive compensation and actions taken in response, use of artificial intelligence (AI)-related metrics within executive incentive plans, pay premiums for certain key skill sets, special retention grants to address executive turnover concerns, and practices pertaining to formal recoupment or “clawback” policies.