AMERICAN EXPRESS CO

What This 2023 Filing Tells Us About AMERICAN EXPRESS CO

According to the 2023 DEF 14A proxy statement filed with the SEC, AMERICAN EXPRESS CO (AXP, CIK 4962) reported CEO 's total compensation at N/A. That figure is an aggregate of base salary (N/A). The median employee at the firm — the reference point mandated by Section 953(b) of the Dodd-Frank Act — earned N/A over the same fiscal year, producing the headline CEO-to-worker pay ratio of 677:1 that this page tracks.

Context matters when reading this ratio. AMERICAN EXPRESS CO operates in the Non-Depository Credit sector and is headquartered in NY. Across the Non-Depository Credit industry (SIC 61), 31 SEC-reporting companies disclosed pay ratios in FY2023, with a median of 79:1 and an average of 128:1. Median industry CEO pay was $6.5M, so AMERICAN EXPRESS CO's N/A sits at or below that typical figure. That comparison is the fastest way to separate "the CEO is paid like peers" from "this company is an outlier."

Finally, a note on what these SEC numbers do and do not include. Total compensation reported under Item 402 of Regulation S-K reflects grant-date fair value for equity awards, not realized pay, so a CEO may eventually cash in more — or less — depending on stock performance and vesting. The pay ratio itself is calculated against a single median employee chosen under rules that allow statistical sampling, and companies may update methodology year to year. This proxy was filed on 2024-03-15; all figures on this page come directly from that public filing and can be verified against the DEF 14A on the SEC EDGAR system.