All the News That's Fit To Print

The breaking news from this year's compensation study is that company revenue and the CPA designation are two of the most influential variables directly correlated with finance professionals' compensation. The below-the-fold story is a familiar one: Management-oriented finance executives significantly outearn their more transaction-oriented counterparts.

Corporate finance compensation surveys don't always generate the sexiest news. USA Today isn't likely to splash a pie chart on page one beneath a banner proclaiming "CFO Salaries in Midwest Climb 3 Percent!" It's not surprising, then, that the key take-aways from Business Finance's 2001 Finance Executive Compensation Survey are not what news jocks would place on the front page. But thanks to the 2,400-plus finance professionals who waded through dozens of questions, we were able to identify several characteristics that clearly influence compensation. And we believe that from our readers' perspective this information warrants bold headlines.

In a statistical analysis, five factors emerged as most predictive of total compensation when isolated from all other survey data: title, company revenue, the CPA designation, years of experience and average number of hours worked per week. Other factors were more difficult to isolate but have an obvious correlation with salary. For example, CFOs who believe the creation of shareholder value is one of the most important drivers of their compensation earn 25 percent more than CFOs who do not share that belief.

While poring over the reams of survey results, we also found newsworthy relationships among factors. For one, management-oriented finance executives, who tend to have higher total compensation, also tend to engage in IPOs, investor relations activities, and mergers and acquisitions — valuable information for finance professionals trying to climb the compensation chart.