Share with your CHRO
Average CHRO compensation at large US public companies dropped 16% year over year, landing at $3.7 million in 2025 versus $4.4 million in 2024, according to new Equilar data on HR executive pay. The cut came almost entirely from cash, not equity. Stock awards held steady at roughly $2 million while base salaries and bonuses both declined. At the top, Visa’s Kelly Tullier pulled $14.5 million, and Tracy Skeans at Yum! Brands jumped from 32nd place to second in a single year. The gender pay gap in the profession runs sharp: women hold 32 of the top 50 spots yet average $1.5 million less than their 18 male peers.
What this means for your business
The pay compression story here isn’t about HR losing influence. It’s about how that influence is being priced. Companies held equity steady while cutting cash, which means boards still believe CHROs drive long-term value but are less willing to pay for the role upfront. If your own comp package is cash-heavy, you’re on the wrong side of that bet. The CHRO whose package looks most like the top earners, equity-weighted and tied to business outcomes, is the one boards are signaling they actually trust.
The gender gap deserves a harder look than it usually gets. Women holding 64% of the top 50 spots while averaging 30% less pay isn’t a pipeline problem or a representation problem. It’s a negotiation and benchmarking problem, and it persists in a profession where women have already won the seniority argument. The recurring failure mode looks like this: strong female representation at the top gets used as evidence that equity has been achieved, which then defuses pressure to close the dollar gap. That logic is circular, and the Equilar numbers make it hard to sustain.
The broader scope expansion Equilar gestures at, CHROs absorbing AI governance, geopolitical workforce risk, and organizational redesign, is the real variable that should be repricing this role upward, not downward. If your responsibilities have grown to include AI adoption strategy or workforce transformation and your total comp moved in the opposite direction this year, that’s the number to bring to your next compensation committee conversation. The falsification condition for optimism here is simple: if equity grants for CHROs start climbing in the 2026 cycle, boards are genuinely repricing the expanded role; if they stay flat while cash keeps falling, it’s a cost-reduction story dressed up as strategic alignment.
Based on reporting from Average CHRO pay drops 16%, top HR leaders made up to $14.5 million: Report, originally published 2026-07-17 01:28:00.
