Where More Women Are on Boards, Executive Pay Is Higher

Appointing more women to corporate boards has long been viewed as a good thing for a company’s performance and for society as a whole. But gender diversity among directors carries another benefit, 2015 proxy filings show: a bigger paycheck for the company’s chief executive. An analysis of C.E.O. pay at 100 large companies last year by Equilar, a compensation research firm in Redwood City, Calif., found that companies with greater gender diversity on their boards paid their chief executives about 15 percent more than the compensation dispensed by companies with less diverse boards. In dollars, this translated to approximately $2 million more in median pay last year among these companies.