Dive Brief:
- The median annual compensation for CFOs at America’s largest public companies climbed to $3.86 million in 2024 — a 62% jump since 2019 — even as turnover in the role has increased, finance software provider Datarails said in a recent report.
- The findings suggest the CFO position has become both more valuable and more volatile as companies expand the remit of finance leaders beyond traditional accounting and reporting functions, according to the research.
- “CFOs are no longer scorekeepers,” Datarails CEO Didi Gurfinkel said in a press release. “The role has fundamentally changed over the last few years, as finance heads have become strategic architects translating financial intelligence into competitive advantage.”
Dive Insight:
The study, which analyzed 10,024 Securities and Exchange Commission proxy filings from 1,991 of the largest U.S. public companies, found that CFO median compensation increased 61.8% since 2019 — a compound annual growth rate of 10.1% — slightly outpacing CEO pay growth of 59.9% over the same period and rising 2.4 times faster than U.S. hourly wage growth. Median CFO pay now slightly exceeds that of chief operating officers ($3.82 million).
Based on the sample, the highest paid CFO in fiscal 2024 was Vaibhav Taneja of Tesla at $139.5 million, driven by a one-time equity grant, including $113 million in stock options. Brittany Bagley of Axon ($53.4 million) ranked second, with Anat Ashkenazi of Alphabet ($50 million) rounding out the top three.
“The CFO role, long considered the conservative counterweight to a CEO’s ambition, is increasingly being compensated as a bet on the company’s future rather than simply a reward for managing the present,” the report said.
Stock awards account for 70% to 90% of total CFO compensation at the upper end of the market.
The compensation surge reflects a “fundamental expansion” of the CFO role, Datarails said in its release. The company pointed to Gartner research showing that 76% of CFOs now oversee or co-own enterprise data and analytics strategy, while more than 70% are responsible for functions beyond finance, including artificial intelligence deployment, cybersecurity, IT operations, ESG reporting and mergers and acquisitions.
The study also found that CFOs have the lowest average tenure in the C-suite at 2.12 years, trailing CEOs (2.83 years), COOs (2.56 years) and chief technology officers (2.49 years).
CFO turnover rose 17% year over year from fiscal 2023 to 2024, outpacing CEO turnover of 9.2%. Most departures were replacements rather than retirements or promotions.
“CFOs suffer from the worst job security in the C-Suite,” the report said.