“We saw inflation go through the roof, and that put pressure on executive compensation because as prices were going up, it was natural for boards to say, ‘How is this affecting the market, and what do we need to do so that we are remaining relevant?’” said Alexander Yaffe, managing director, Pearl Meyer.

"To recognize and/or reward employees when funds are limited, companies may assign higher-ranking titles or designations that are more 'creative' and 'flashier,'" said Rebecca Toman, vice president of the survey business unit at Pearl Meyer.

“Our data indicate that companies are increasingly reliant on job titles as an important component of their [talent] strategy,” said Rebecca Toman, vice president of the survey business unit at Pearl Meyer.

“If the CEO adds a lot of shareholder value through decisions that he or she is making resulting in a high return to shareholders, then boards are going to want to make sure that they are rewarding that individual appropriately to ensure that there's alignment,” said Ed Steinhoff, managing director, Pearl Meyer.

“In 2020 and 2021, [tech] employees were capturing that moment to win large pay increases, but now into ’23, we see the pendulum swinging in significant force back the other way,” said Aalap Shah, managing director, Pearl Meyer.”

"We see the most eye-popping numbers in the significant effort to reward and retain employees through the use of titles where 37% of our respondents are ‘actively applying’ titles to retain key employees, up from 27% in 2018," said Rebecca Toman, vice president of the survey business unit at Pearl Meyer.