Data Source: SEC EDGAR

All compensation data comes from Form DEF 14A (definitive proxy statement) filings on the SEC's EDGAR system. Public companies are required to file proxy statements before annual shareholder meetings. Since 2018, Section 953(b) of the Dodd-Frank Act also requires these filings to disclose the ratio of CEO total compensation to median employee pay, under Item 402(u) of Regulation S-K.

Separately, the SEC mandates that a filing's Summary Compensation Table (SCT) itemize named executive officer pay into base salary, bonus, stock awards, option awards, non-equity incentive plan compensation, pension value changes, and other compensation. Our pipeline does not yet parse this itemized SCT; what we extract today is the pay-ratio disclosure figures described below.

Extraction Process

We use automated extraction to parse the Item 402(u) pay-ratio disclosure from DEF 14A filings: CEO total compensation, median employee pay, and the ratio itself. The extraction pipeline handles the variety of formatting approaches companies use, from structured XBRL data to HTML tables in varying formats. Key steps include:

• Filing identification: We monitor EDGAR for new DEF 14A filings across our coverage universe of 2,313 companies, focusing on S&P 500, Russell 1000, and selected mid-cap companies with actively traded securities.
• Pay-ratio extraction: The CEO total compensation, median employee pay, and ratio figures are extracted from the filing HTML. We handle the variety of formats and footnote structures different companies use in their proxy presentations.
• Industry classification: Each company is classified by SIC (Standard Industrial Classification) code, enabling industry-level median and average calculations.
• Validation: A company's pay ratio is only published when all three figures, CEO total compensation, median employee pay, and the ratio, are extracted together; if any one is missing we treat the filing as not yet parseable rather than publish a partial record.

What We Display vs. What We Derive

The following data points are taken directly from SEC filings without modification: CEO total compensation, median employee pay, and the reported CEO-to-worker pay ratio. A per-component pay breakdown (salary, bonus, stock awards, options, pension, other compensation) and CFO compensation come from the same filings' Summary Compensation Table, but our extraction pipeline does not currently parse that table, so those fields are not populated for any company in the current dataset. Company pages state this explicitly wherever a breakdown would otherwise appear.

The following are our derived calculations: industry median and average pay ratios, industry median CEO compensation, company comparisons against industry benchmarks, and rankings by various compensation metrics. These calculations are straightforward aggregations, no weighting by company size or revenue is applied. The goal is transparency in the numbers, not editorial judgment about whether any particular ratio is too high or too low.

Coverage and Limitations

PlainCEOPay covers 2,313 public companies across 62 SIC industry groups. Coverage focuses on the largest and most widely followed public companies. Private companies, non-profit organizations, and foreign private issuers (which file on different SEC forms) are not included.

The pay ratio is only as comparable as the SEC rule allows. Companies have discretion in how they identify their median employee and what adjustments they apply (cost-of-living adjustments, inclusion or exclusion of certain worker categories). Two companies in the same industry with identical workforces could report meaningfully different ratios based on these methodological choices. Our pay ratio guide explains these nuances in detail.

Update Schedule

Companies file proxy statements annually, typically 2-4 months after their fiscal year end. The majority of filings arrive between February and April. The portal's data vintage is shown with the relevant data pages; we do not promise a fixed refresh interval for each individual filing. Browse all companies on our company search page.