S&P 500: Most Cost-Efficient CEOs

CompScore is one of the core metrics we publish on CEORater—a proprietary CEO efficiency rating designed to help investors identify executives who deliver outsized returns relative to their compensation.

CompScore is CEORater's proprietary letter-grade rating (A–F, Highest–Lowest) of a CEO's compensation efficiency.

At its core, CompScore measures a CEO's total compensation cost per unit of Average Annual Total Stock Return (TSR) generated during the CEO's tenure. The lower the total compensation cost per unit of return, the higher the CompScore.

Why CompScore Matters

CompScore quantifies how much shareholder value a CEO creates for every dollar they're paid—turning compensation analysis into an actionable efficiency ratio. CEORater calculates CompScore for all S&P 500 CEOs, enabling apples-to-apples comparisons across sectors and industries.

CEORater CompScore data showing cost-efficient S&P 500 CEOs — **Sample CompScore data.** The highlighted column shows CEO compensation cost per 1% of average annual TSR generated. CompScore (letter grade) appears four columns to the left.
Click image to expand

As the data illustrates, several founder-CEOs rank among the most cost-efficient leaders in the S&P 500—often taking minimal cash compensation while generating exceptional long-term shareholder returns. This alignment between founder incentives and shareholder outcomes is precisely what CompScore is designed to surface.

For a complete breakdown of our calculation methodology, including data sources and scoring thresholds, view our Methodology