It’s safe to say the bosses of big US companies ended 2025 richer. The average CEO’s pay increased 4.3 per cent last year, according to Equilar, reaching 219 times that of the median employee. But judging by the growing prevalence of corporate spending on personal security, while remuneration is rising, so is the prevailing level of anxiety.
The trend towards paying more to keep CEOs safe started long before the killing of UnitedHealthcare chief Brian Thompson at the end of 2024. That event undoubtedly gave companies a spur to broaden their budgets. More than 29 per cent of S&P 500 companies provided home security perks for their top brass in 2025, based on businesses that have revealed their perquisites so far, compared with 22 per cent in 2024, according to ISS-Corporate.