Modest Exec Compensation Increases Help Restaurants Maintain Revenue Growth

7/6/2011

As executive compensation in the banking and financial sectors continues to come under fire, Technomic's newly released Public Chain and Executive Compensation Performance Report shows only a modest .04 percent increase in median cash income for executives at the 60 publicly-traded chain restaurant companies.

Total revenues of the 60 public restaurant chain companies included in this report were up three percent in 2010 with total net incomes increasing 21 percent.

Restaurants were able to increase the median total compensation of executives at a rate of 8.4 percent using long-term incentives, stock options and non-equity incentive plans to reward performance.

Technomic EVP Darren Tristano says the restaurant industry seems to be doing a better job than others when it comes to tying executive compensation to revenue growth. "The industry gets high marks in terms of aligning the compensation drivers with the company objectives and tying compensation with meaningful performance," says Tristano. He also points out that the past few years have seen a large increase in non-equity incentive plans, with 33 of the CEOs in the report receiving that type of compensation as part of their pay.

The Public Chain and Executive Compensation Performance Report provides comprehensive financial data on 60 public chain restaurant companies, complete with user-friendly indexes and company profiles. Operators can use this benchmarking tool to compare their performance with competitors on four vital dimensions: size, profitability, growth and productivity. The executive compensation analysis provides an in-depth look at executive compensation practices among these companies.

Additional findings include:

Total 2010 CEO compensation ranged from a high of $21.7 million to a low of $97,332.
The 60 companies included in the report employ over 1.8 million people, a 1.3 percent increase from 2009.

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