Executive Compensation Planning for 2027: What Employers Need to Know This Comp Season
Reading Time: 9 minutes - Local CEO pay rankings are back in the news, but they only cover public companies and cannot benchmark private-employer pay
- Compensation season runs August through November, and 2027 budgets are being set now
- National surveys project 2027 salary increase budgets of 3.4% to 3.6%, roughly flat with 2026
- When budgets are flat, bonus design and long-term incentives are where executive packages actually compete
- The 2026 National Executive Compensation Survey benchmarks executive pay by role, industry, and company size
- Catapult's free executive compensation infographic previews five findings from that survey so you can pressure-test your numbers
Executive compensation planning is the annual process of setting base salary, bonus structure, and long-term incentives for leadership roles using market data, company performance, and budget constraints. For 2027, national surveys project overall salary increase budgets of 3.4% to 3.6%. Most employers finalize these decisions between August and November, ahead of January effective dates, using benchmark data matched to their company size and industry.
Executive pay is back in the headlines. The Triangle Business Journal and Axios Raleigh both published their annual CEO compensation rankings this summer, with the region’s top public-company packages running well into eight figures and most Triangle public-company CEOs seeing increases last year.
Those stories make for good reading. They make for terrible benchmarks. Which is a problem, because right now, every fall, the same email lands in an HR leader’s inbox. The CFO wants next year’s compensation budget. The board wants to know whether the CEO’s package is still competitive. And a key executive just got a call from a recruiter.
That’s compensation season. It runs roughly August through November, and the decisions made in these few months set pay for the entire year ahead. Executive pay is the hardest part of it, because the numbers are bigger, the data is scarcer, and the audience (your board) asks harder questions.
Here’s what the current data says, and how to use it.
Why the CEO pay headlines can’t set your numbers
The annual rankings published by outlets like the Triangle Business Journal only cover publicly traded companies, because those are the only ones required to disclose pay. That leaves out most of the employers in the region. Many of the Triangle’s largest companies, including SAS and Epic Games, are privately held, and their executive pay never appears in a proxy statement.
The disclosed numbers are also built differently. Public-company CEO packages are dominated by stock grants tied to share price, which is why they can swing by millions from one year to the next. A private company setting a CEO’s cash compensation and bonus plan is answering a different question entirely.
So when your board member reads that a local CEO earned $28 million and asks where your executives stand, the honest answer is that the headline number has almost nothing to do with your market. What you need is data from employers your size, in your industry, structured the way your pay is structured. That’s what compensation surveys exist for.
When compensation season starts (and why you’re already in it)
Most organizations with a January merit cycle work backward from these milestones:
August to September. Salary budget surveys publish their projections. Finance sets preliminary budget targets. HR pulls market data.
October. Compensation committees and leadership review executive pay against benchmarks. Bonus plan design for the coming year gets finalized.
November. Budgets lock. Merit matrices go to managers. Executive agreements and incentive targets get documented.
December to January. Communication, then effective dates.
If executive pay review starts in November, you’re negotiating under deadline pressure with whatever data you can find. Starting in August or September means you walk into budget conversations with benchmarks instead of guesses.
What 2027 salary budgets look like
Three major national surveys published their 2027 projections this summer, and they agree: budgets are stable. We track these alongside our own salary and HR trend data so members can see national movement next to regional practice.
| Source | 2027 U.S. projection | 2026 actual |
|---|---|---|
| WorldatWork Salary Budget Survey (1,799 organizations) | 3.6% | 3.6% |
| WTW Salary Budget Planning Report (1,650 U.S. organizations) | 3.4% | 3.5% |
| Payscale Salary Budget Survey (1,266 organizations) | 3.5% | 3.4% |
Flat budgets don’t mean static strategy. WTW found that more than a third of employers are actively adjusting compensation programs, including raising starting salary ranges and adding retention bonuses for key employees. Payscale reports that across-the-board “peanut butter” raises are fading, with only 32% of organizations planning even spreads for 2027 as merit-based differentiation takes over. And the stakes are real: roughly one in four organizations told Payscale they’re losing talent because their increases aren’t big enough.
The takeaway for executive pay: when the total pool is fixed near 3.5%, every dollar has to be placed deliberately. That starts with knowing the market.
The five executive pay questions the national data answers
General salary budget surveys tell you what the workforce as a whole is getting. They don’t tell you what a CEO, CFO, or plant manager should earn, how their bonuses should be structured, or when long-term incentives make sense. That takes executive-specific data, which is what our HR research library exists to provide.
The 2026 National Executive Compensation Survey, conducted through the Employer Associations of America network that Catapult belongs to, benchmarks executive pay nationwide by role, industry, and company size, with manufacturing and non-manufacturing reported separately. If you’re setting executive pay this fall, these are the five questions it answers:
How far did executive base pay actually move this year? Before you promise an increase, know where the market landed, from the CEO down through operating leadership. The answer may be closer to your general merit budget than you’d expect, or it may not.
How common are formal bonus plans, and how are they built? Most organizations offer executives a short-term bonus. The real differences between packages are eligibility, payout formula, frequency, and maximum. If your plan is a handshake and a year-end number, you’re competing against employers with documented structures.
What actually drives bonus payouts? Individual performance, company performance, salary level, and discretion all show up in bonus formulas, but the market has moved decisively toward one of them. Knowing which one makes your plan easier to design and far easier to defend in a tight year.
How much does company size change the CEO benchmark? The gap in total CEO cash compensation between small and large organizations is dramatic, and variable pay creates much of it. Benchmarking against companies of the wrong size is the fastest way to get executive pay wrong in either direction.
Who’s actually getting long-term incentives? LTI participation looks very different at the C-suite level than it does for directors and managers. Knowing the real participation rates tells you whether an LTI would be table stakes for your next executive hire or a genuine differentiator.
The infographic answers all five with figures from the survey. Download it free here. A work email unlocks the full PDF.
When the seat is empty: recruiting for executive roles
Compensation planning and executive recruiting are the same conversation. Nothing tests your pay structure like an open executive seat.
Candidates for senior roles arrive with data. They know their market value, they’re often weighing multiple opportunities, and they’ll negotiate against whatever numbers you put forward. If your offer was built on guesswork, that’s when it shows. If it was built on benchmarks matched to your size and industry, you can defend the package, explain the bonus structure, and move fast enough to win the candidate.
The package itself is a recruiting tool, not just a cost. Two offers with identical base salaries can land completely differently depending on how the bonus is designed and whether long-term incentives are on the table. For a candidate leaving unvested equity behind, an LTI is often the difference between a yes and a no. Structure, not just size, wins executive searches.
Speed matters too. Executive vacancies are expensive, and long searches push organizations into panic offers that break their pay structure for years. The employers who fill seats fastest are the ones who did the benchmark work before the seat opened.
Catapult supports the full cycle. Our executive search team runs senior-level searches for employers who don’t have that muscle in-house, and contract recruiting adds capacity when your team is stretched. Succession and workforce planning reduces how often you’re searching under pressure in the first place. And because our recruiting and compensation teams work under one roof, the offer that goes out is built on the same benchmark data you’ll use to defend it later.
How to run executive compensation planning in five steps
1. Benchmark against the right peer set. Match on company size and industry first. A $20M manufacturer benchmarking its CEO against $500M companies will overpay or lose the argument entirely. Use survey data built from employers like yours, not proxy statements from public companies. If you only need one or two roles priced, a single-role benchmarking report is available without a membership.
2. Set base increases inside a defensible band. An increase that tracks the executive market rarely needs a long justification. An increase outside it should have one, in writing, tied to market position or scope change. Benchmark data is what tells you where that band sits, and a formal career level and pay band structure is what keeps the answer consistent from one year to the next.
3. Design the bonus before you set the target. Decide who’s eligible, what metrics drive payout, and what the maximum is. A payout formula anchored to the market’s dominant driver is also easier to explain in a tight year.
4. Decide whether long-term incentives belong in the package. If a senior leader’s departure would set the business back years, an LTI with multi-year vesting is often cheaper than a counteroffer or a search. It doesn’t require stock. Cash-based long-term plans work for private companies. This is where a wider total rewards strategy matters more than any single number.
5. Document the process, not just the number. Boards and, increasingly, courts and regulators care how a pay decision was made. Market data reviewed, peer set used, rationale recorded. That paper trail is what turns a pay decision into a defensible one.
Compensation planning is a place where a second set of eyes pays for itself. Catapult’s compensation consulting team and benchmarking studies build executive pay structures employers can defend to the board, and our compensation planning services cover the full annual cycle, not just the executive layer. You can see how the pieces fit together across our compensation solutions.
Frequently asked questions
When should employers start compensation planning for 2027?
August or September for a January merit cycle. Budget surveys publish over the summer, and starting early means benchmarks are in hand before finance locks the budget in November.
What is the average salary increase budget for 2027?
National surveys project 3.4% to 3.6% for U.S. employers, roughly flat with 2026 actuals. Individual increases vary widely around that average as employers shift toward merit-based differentiation.
Where can employers find executive pay benchmarks?
The 2026 National Executive Compensation Survey benchmarks executive base pay, bonus practices, and long-term incentives by role, industry, and company size. Catapult’s free executive compensation infographic previews five findings, and the full survey overview explains what the complete report covers for Catapult members.
How should executive bonuses be structured?
Start with three decisions: who is eligible, what drives the payout, and what the maximum is. National survey data shows a clear market consensus on the payout driver, which is worth knowing before you design yours.
What makes an executive offer competitive?
Structure as much as size. Benchmark the base against employers of your size and industry, then differentiate with bonus design and long-term incentives. Candidates weighing multiple offers, or leaving unvested equity behind, often decide on the incentive structure rather than the salary.
Can employers use published CEO pay rankings as benchmarks?
Not reliably. Those lists only include publicly traded companies, and disclosed packages are dominated by stock grants tied to share price. Private and mid-market employers need survey data matched to their company size, industry, and pay structure.
How much should a CEO be paid?
It depends heavily on company size and industry, and the range is wider than most employers expect. Benchmarking studies matched to your size and industry are the reliable way to set the number. Our free compensation benchmarking starter guide walks through how to build a peer set.
Is the Executive Compensation Survey regional or national?
National. It is conducted through the Employer Associations of America, with results broken out by role, industry, and company size. Manufacturing and non-manufacturing are reported separately where they differ.
Current as of August 2026. Salary budget projections, survey findings, and company ownership all change over time. Every figure and company detail here reflects what was published or reported as of that date. Ownership status in particular can change: privately held companies do sometimes go public, at which point their executive pay does become disclosable.
WorldatWork, 2026-2027 Salary Budget Survey (July 2026)
WTW, Salary Budget Planning Report (July 2026)
Payscale, 2026-2027 Salary Budget Survey (August 2026)
2026 National Executive Compensation Survey, Employer Associations of America
Triangle Business Journal, Triangle CEO compensation coverage (July 2026)
Axios Raleigh, “These were the Triangle’s highest-paid CEOs in 2025” (August 2026)
Jackie Esposito is a Compensation Advisor at Catapult, where she helps employers build pay structures they can defend, from annual merit planning through executive packages. She works with member organizations on benchmarking, bonus plan design, and compensation strategy.
