“These times are unprecedented... Incredible different forces are at play in the environment that can impact the effectiveness of a CEO, their team and their overall organization,” Susan Sandlund, a managing director at Pearl Meyer.

But Matt Turner, managing director at Pearl Meyer, cautions against overreaction. “There’s so much unknown about what will happen with the tariff situation. It’s better to wait and see… if you make an adjustment now and it looks like you’ve benefited from a windfall, that can be really bad optics.”

“There is less margin for error,” said Alexander Yaffe, managing director at Pearl Meyer.

“When there’s a more pessimistic or negative economic outlook, it tends to put a dampener on increases in pay for the executive team,” said Matt Turner, president of executive compensation at Pearl Meyer.

Matt Turner, president of Pearl Meyer’s executive compensation consulting, says: “You want to have those [exceptions] as minimal as possible.” And in cases where adjustments are necessary, transparency is non-negotiable.

"The job of the board is not to get an A+ from ISS," said Turner. "[It's] to make sure that the executive compensation program is effective in incenting and motivating the executive team to provide the best performance possible for shareholders."

Most of the increase to median CEO pay appears to be from performance-based components of compensation and less so from base salary increases, Matt Turner, president of executive compensation at Pearl Meyer, told Agenda.

There's been a visible increase in companies continuing to expand the scope of their clawback policies this proxy season, Matt Turner, president of executive compensation at compensation and leadership consultant Pearl Meyer, told Agenda.

“We always have companies struggle with the question: ‘Is it worth it to be public?’” Managing Director Deb Lifshey said.

"The best-governed boards have a succession plan in place so that they can crack open that playbook in the event of unplanned turnover and not be caught off guard," said Jan Koors, senior managing director and head of consulting services at Pearl Meyer.

"From a governance perspective, outside the bare minimum, [perks] are generally frowned upon," said Ryan Hourihan, managing director with Pearl Meyer.