Median director total compensation rose 6% to $239,918 in 2013, said a Towers Watson report released Wednesday that studied 474 publicly traded companies in the Fortune 500.
The increase is double the 3% rise the previous year.
The median value of the cash component of total compensation remained flat at $100,000, while the median compensation from annual and recurring stock awards rose 4% to $130,500.
Only 23% of the companies pay a board meeting fee, down from 28% the previous year. The fee was a median $2,000 in 2013, unchanged from the previous year.
But the median cash retainer for a committee membership rose 25% to $10,000; such pay is offered by 28% of the companies, which is up from 23% of companies the previous year.
Towers Watson’s latest data were for companies that filed their fiscal year 2013 proxy statements by June 30 of this year. The comparisons with the 2012 fiscal year were made with 469 publicly traded companies in the Fortune 500 list.
In all, 56% of median director pay was from stock compensation, up from 55% the previous year.
