Skip to main content

CEO Pay: Behind the Numbers

Chief executives of associations and other nonprofits are not great fans of compensation lists. Besides showcasing their salaries for staff, friends, and family to see, the figures don’t really reflect their annual pay, the leaders protest. It’s a hard complaint to swallow at first, particularly since the salary figures come directly from the Internal Revenue Service’s Form 990, the tax document on which nonprofits report their annual budget, compensation payments, and financial underpinnings. Accountants and tax lawyers agree, however, that the Form 990 numbers don’t tell the entire story. When a group reports its CEO’s salary, “what you’re really seeing is a lot of… Read More