Pearl Meyer Survey Finds More Employees Receiving Equity Grants

One third of senior leaders are receiving higher equity values

BOSTON—May 11, 2022—Executive compensation consultancy Pearl Meyer has published new data that show companies are going deeper into their organizations with equity grants, and that burn rates have increased dramatically.

Key Findings

28% indicated more employees are receiving equity than in the previous year
34% have increased the value of equity granted to top leadership
37% have raised the value of equity offered to new senior leadership hires and 30.5% have raised equity grant values for other lower-level new hires
45% have increased their equity burn rate this year; just 7.5% noted it will be lower than 2021

“This outcome is not surprising,” said Aalap Shah, managing director at Pearl Meyer and a sponsor of the survey. “We have heard many compensation committees and management teams discuss the need to broaden equity eligibility in order to be competitive. This speaks to the current difficulty in both retaining high performers and recruiting new talent. However, there is also concern, and rightly so, about overall share usage and shareholder sentiment.”

The survey shows that fewer than a third—just 29%—take the value of unvested equity holdings into account when making new equity grant decisions.

“A review of an executive’s unvested equity value can be an important tool for the compensation committee to manage costs, particularly when there is so much external pressure,” noted Shah. “Having that information at hand provides a more accurate context for making decisions and evaluating whether or not you actually have a retention risk.”

About the Survey

The online survey “Trends in Granting Equity” was conducted between March 16-25, 2022 and 187 organizations responded. Most taking the survey (76%) reported they are either in HR or the c-suite and 19% are board members. Complete data and analysis is available at www.pearlmeyer.com.

About Pearl Meyer

Pearl Meyer is the leading advisor to boards and senior management on the alignment of executive compensation with business and leadership strategy, making pay programs a powerful catalyst for value creation and competitive advantage. Pearl Meyer’s global clients stand at the forefront of their industries and range from emerging high-growth, not-for-profit, and private companies to the Fortune 500 and FTSE 350. The firm has offices in Atlanta, Boston, Charlotte, Chicago, Houston, London, Los Angeles, New York, Rochester, and San Jose.