Considering executive mobility in the scope of compensation, more than half of global executives surveyed (54.3%) would be willing to make a career move for a better role/increased responsibility even if it entailed a pay cut.
 
The survey also revealed that, while there has been much media scrutiny of skyrocketing CEO salaries at large, public companies, when looking at executive pay on a global scale, the numbers present a very different picture. Based on base salaries of 186 executives in C-suite positions at public, private, and non-profit organizations worldwide, the annual global average C-suite base salary was $278,800 USD. When factoring in bonuses, the largest percentage of global C-suite executives earn annual bonuses less than $50K USD.
 
While more than half of executives did experience an increase in total compensation in the last fiscal year, many executives reported concerns about salary stagnation, or even overall decreases compared to recent years. One executive reported “I am again in the market after four years, and notice that salaries have declined significantly. My perception is in a range from 20-40% for the same positions that I was looking at before.”
 
Commenting on the report, Peter Felix, President of the AESC said: “Executive compensation at the highest levels is frequently a topic of media and public concern. However, what is often overlooked is that many senior executives earn in a more moderate income range, and compensation in these categories has not increased significantly in recent years. In some cases the reverse is true. This report sheds greater light on trends in executive compensation around the world which we hope will be both informative and enlightening.”