But Their Own Pay Is Soaring

Director pay now tops $100,000 at all but six of the major companies studied and exceeds $400,000 at nine companies. "Director pay will continue to grow, in tandem with boards' more public and activist role in corporate oversight," said Joseph Rich, president of Pearl Meyer & Partners, now an arm of Clark Consulting. "The structure of pay is also changing, as boards parallel a trend in executive pay programs by shifting more of their own equitybased compensation from stock options into full-value grants."

The study found that median pay for service on the compensation committees was up nearly 18 percent to $6,000 this year, while median pay for audit committee member service was up 9 percent to $10,900. Rich said he expected continued increases, particularly for members of those two committees.

The average value of equity awarded to directors rose by nearly 10 percent. But on average, the value of option grants to directors declined for the fourth year in a row, while fullvalue stock grants soared to more than $82,000.