Three of the 10 highest-paid chief executives of S&P 500 companies were women – a first in the 28-year-history of WSJ’s CEO compensation report. Still, only 5% of S&P 500 companies have a woman at the helm. The major takeaway is the importance of pay transparency. Professor Vishal Gupta of the University of Mississippi, one of the study’s authors, surmises that the pay gap at the top may have narrowed because the chief executive role is so publicly prominent. “We think it is a visibility issue,” he said. “[Executive pay] is highly visible to all the stakeholders.”
