As public scrutiny continues to hone in on executive compensation practices, companies are taking care to meet Securities and Exchange Commission guidelines. The SEC requires all firms to list all peer companies used as part of the pay determination process. Peer groups, a group of companies used for comparison of compensation practices and performance, consist of 10 to 20 companies with a median group size of 19, according to Equilar’s Fortune 500 Group Report. According to the study, most companies benchmark to peers one-half to two times their size. For many companies, their peer universe is small, with industrials having the largest peer groups with 35 companies on average.
On average, a Fortune 500 companies is included in 21 peer groups. The breakdown of how often a firm in the Fortune 500 is used as a benchmark is represented in this graphic. 
Equilar’s peer group REPORT looks into who the peer groups used for their benchmarking and examined how often firms in the Fortune 500 are used by others for establishing compensation. Equilar expects an increase in public interest, bringing peer groups in the spotlight going into the 2010 proxy season.
The five most frequently used companies among the Fortune 500 for benchmarking:
| Company Name | # of References |
| Limited Brands | 65 |
| 3M | 64 |
| Johnson & Johnson | 60 |
| PepsiCo | 57 |
| Kellogg | 56 |