Companies are spending big on perks for their C-suite. According to the Wall Street Journal’s recent analysis of a trove of annual filings, 1,500 of the largest U.S. public firms spent a combined total of nearly $600 million on 15,000 perks for top executives.
Those costs break down to personal security (29.4%), relocation and expat support (22.1%), personal aircraft use (19.5%), financial planning and tax benefits (6%), ground transportation (4.2%), health and wellness (4.1%), memberships, travel and lifestyle (2.1%), product, gifts and discounts (0.3%) and other costs (12.4%).
The median cost of executive security has more than doubled since 2021 across the 500 largest public firms. The analysis shows Meta spent $22.5 million to protect CEO Mark Zuckerberg. Blackstone paid $12.6 million on personal security for Steve Schwarzman, while Alphabet paid $8.8 million for CEO Sundar Pichai’s security detail.
Relocation and expat support made up the second largest chunk of perk spending. Etsy CEO Kruti Patel Goyal went on an international assignment to the U.K. and traveled back to the U.S. last year, during which she received $1.2 million in perks that covered residential costs, lease termination, her children’s tuition, tax prep and other benefits.
Another perk is personal aircraft use, which 700 executives at nearly 400 companies benefit from, which cost over $160,000 on average. The executives with the fattest flight packages were Charlie Ergen of EchoStar at $3.4 million, John Tyson of Tyson Foods at $3.2 million, Patrick Dumont of the Las Vegas Sands at $2.6 million and Tim Cook of Apple at $790,000. Apple’s board mandates Cook to fly private, citing “security and efficiency purposes.”
Other perks include everything from tickets to sporting events to alcohol. For example, Chemed gave its CEO $121,502 in tickets for Cincinnati Bengals games and other sports events. And liquor firm Constellation Brands gave its CEO $20,000 of free alcohol. The company said that perk was part of a wider free product program.
Meanwhile, 400 executives across companies had some or all private club fees paid for. Last year, Texas Roadhouse CEO received $131,000 to cover initiation fees and membership fees for a country club in Louisville, Kentucky, where the company is based.
A July Guardian/Harris Poll shows 95% of Americans believe the U.S. is suffering from an affordability crisis, with 57% believe the overall economy is getting worse. Nearly two million Americans are also dealing with long-term unemployment, which accounted for 27.3% of total joblessness in June.
In June, the inflation rate dropped to 3.5% from 4.2% in May. That still remains above the Federal Reserve’s 2% target. While federal data shows an average hourly wage gain of 3.5% compared to the same time last year, many Americans feel it’s not enough to keep up with how much inflation increased over the same time span.
According to the Journal, these executive perks are stacked on top of yearly salaries. Even as Americans grapple with the high cost of living and unemployment, the C-suite is enjoying a very different set of expenses.