Dive Brief:
- The median 2024 pay of public-company chief compliance officers is $532,454, a 7% year-over-year increase, a survey of of 330 compliance officers by executive search firm BarkerGilmore finds. Some big-company CCOs earn more than $1.3 million. Pay is defined as salary plus bonus.
- Private company CCOs earn median compensation of $316,000, 69% less than what’s earned at public companies. That difference likely reflects the greater number, and variety, of companies that are privately held versus those that are public.
- For nonprofits, the differential with public companies is stark, with CCOs in this sector earning median pay of $275,000, often with no bonus. That’s 94% less than what public-company CCOs earn. Unique to this sector, women in the role tend to earn more than men, $275,000 versus $252,000.
Dive Insight:
CCOs are a relatively new C-suite role. A decade ago, few companies had them but today they’re integral to companies because of the growth in federal, state, local and international rules applying to business.
Among public companies, most CCOs report to the general counsel, while among private companies they tend to split close to evenly in reporting either to the GC or the CEO. At nonprofits, CCOs tend to report to the CEO.
In addition to whether the company is public or private, or whether it’s a nonprofit organization, how much a CCO earns is tied to the size of the organization, the number of years the person has been in the role, the number of direct reports the person has, the level and type of their education, and the industry the organization is in.
A CCO with a JD degree who works at a public company, for example, can expect to be the highest paid of their JD peers, at a median $529,000 compared to $336,000 for a private-company CCO and $316,000 for a nonprofit CCO. CCOs who don’t have that degree tend to earn considerably less: $234,000 at a public company, $276,000 at a private company and $224,000 at a nonprofit.
A CCO with 20 or more direct reports tends to earn the most in the role, $692,000 compared to $209,000 for those who have no direct reports. As the number of direct reports increases, so does the typical pay.
