The COVID-19 pandemic and related economic disruption had a wide range of effects on public companies and their pay programs. Although there are no easy “one size fits all” solutions for executive pay, this year has scrambled virtually every pay strategy and rulebook, leaving compensation committees and their advisors in uncharted waters.

Many companies reduced pay for senior executives and board members as the pandemic took hold, in part to make clear that the pain would be felt across the full breadth of organizations that had in many cases been decimated by workforce reductions.