By Ross Kerber

BOSTON (Reuters] – Median U.S. CEO pay rose 31% to record $20m last year. The increase came after a modest decline due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Leaders were lavished with cash bonuses and stock awards.

Equilar released Monday’s study that revealed the top executives of technology giant Apple (NASDAQ) and Broadcom (NASDAQ) Inc. to receive large pay rises.

This study included the top 100 U.S. businesses by annual revenue and those that had filed proxy statements before March 31. A year earlier, the median salary for CEOs was $15.5million. This is 2% less than 2020.

Amit Batish (Equilar Director of Content) stated that leaders are rewarded by companies for guiding them through difficult times like supply shortfalls. Compensation was also increased by share price increases and rising revenue. He stated that “a lot of these companies performed well during the pandemic and that is definitely what drove the increase in salary.”

Batish stated that while higher compensation could be a catalyst for shareholder vote rejection, other investors value returns more. Among companies, average support for advisory votes on executive pay fell to 88.3% last year from 89.6% in 2020, according https://semlerbrossy.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/03/SBCG_2022-SOP-Report_04-14.pdf to pay consultancy Semler Brossy, and was at 85.6% this year so far.

Equilar’s survey found that these trends have also led to an increase in the ratio between CEO compensation and the median wages of employees at companies to 254 to 1, from 238 to 1 a year earlier.

Apple CEO Tim Cook received $98.7million last year, an increase of $14.8 million in 2020 and a significant stock award. A low number of votes, 64%, was cast by investors in support of the pay package at the company’s March 4 annual meeting.

Apple refused to comment.

Broadcom’s chipmaker Broadcom paid $60.7 million to CEO Hock Tan last year. This is an increase from the $3.7million he received in 2013. On April 4, investors voted for the pay with 80%.

Broadcom did not respond to our request for comment.