Prior to the coronavirus pandemic, CEOs at 28 publicly traded restaurant companies were earning up to $20 million in 2019. Since then, many executives have taken pay cuts, some of which have since been restored.
In this gallery, see how much restaurant CEOs earned in 2019, as well as how much they made the year prior. Many restaurant companies saw leadership changes last year, and in those cases you can see the previous leader’s compensation as well.
Compensation totals include salary, stock awards, option awards, incentive pay and other compensation.
The CEO pay ratio, also included, is calculated by the company and is based on a comparison of total executive pay with the salary of the “median employee,” or salary for which half of workers make more and half make less. The median salary often includes part-time workers and a variety of factors. Methodologies vary.
Companies here are in order of NRN’s Top 200 data, where restaurant chains are ranked by U.S. systemwide sales in 2019. Companies with more than one restaurant chain are here ordered according to the chain with the highest sales.
