A growing number of large corporate boards are adding one-time bonuses on top of regular pay packages, with both the number and size of these awards soaring.

Companies in the S&P 500 paid a total of $1.7 billion in special awards to executives last year, a 50% jump from a year earlier. One-time executive pay is becoming increasingly common.

Not long ago, one-time bonuses for CEOs and other top executives were still occasional, typically used to retain key leaders or reward them for delivering above-target results or solving major problems. Now, more and more boards at big companies are adding these "special awards" on top of regular compensation plans, and the amounts keep rising. Equilar pay data compiled by The Wall Street Journal shows S&P 500 companies paid a combined $1.7 billion in special executive awards last year, up 50% year over year. Over the past two years, nearly half of companies granted at least one such award, and a quarter granted multiple. At some companies, one-time bonuses have become almost routine. Dozens of executives received multiple special awards in consecutive years over the past two years, including Warner Bros. Discovery (ASX: WBD) CEO David Zaslav and Cisco (ASX: CSCO) CEO Chuck Robbins. Special awards have been a major driver pushing up CEO pay, with the compensation of Zaslav and CrowdStrike (ASX: CRWD)'s George Kurtz rising sharply as a result. The median S&P 500 CEO pay reached $17.9 million last year, up from just $11 million a decade ago. Courtney Yu, research director at Equilar, said: "Look at the list of highest-paid CEOs, and many are there because they received these one-time awards that year."

Special executive award amounts at selected companies are counted as of fiscal year-end, include CEOs and other executives, and use the most recent two fiscal years of data for each company. Source: Equilar. Multiple factors are driving this wave of awards, with rising CEO turnover a major cause. Boards often use special awards to attract talent or lock in existing executives. Data from corporate governance software firm Diligent shows 67 S&P 500 executives left in 2025, up 29% from 2023, and 36 had already departed in the first half of 2026. Many investors do not support making one-time pay routine and prefer setting pay based on stable long-term performance metrics. Fund firm T. Rowe Price lists special equity awards as an outdated pay practice in its proxy voting guidelines, arguing such arrangements disconnect executive interests from shareholder interests. People at pay consulting firms say corporate boards now place more emphasis on retaining management to cope with the AI wave and macroeconomic uncertainty. Blair Jones, a compensation consultant at Semler Brossy, said: "Boards are under a lot of pressure and feel a strong sense of urgency." David Kokell, head of U.S. compensation research at Institutional Shareholder Services (ISS), warned of the risk: special pay squeezes the weight of structured performance pay, which pays little or nothing when performance is poor. "Investors are very clear: one-time awards should not become a fixed pattern of payment."

Warner Bros. Discovery disclosed that Zaslav's total pay last year was $165 million, ranking fifth on The Wall Street Journal's annual list of highest-paid CEOs. Of that, $110 million came from option awards tied to a contract renewal in June 2025, and another $11 million was a "supplemental" restricted stock award granted in March of the previous year. He also received $29 million in base salary plus performance bonus, along with $11.5 million in regular equity incentives. Warner said in a regulatory filing that both special awards can vest in full; under the earlier award, after performance targets were met in February, he could receive twice the target number of shares. Because the company is expected to be acquired by Paramount Sky next week and the stock has soared, Zaslav has already received about 20% of the total, then worth $111 million in stock and options. After the deal closes, he will likely receive the remainder, currently worth about $366 million. Since March 2025, Warner's stock price has tripled. Data shows companies are not slowing down: Equilar counts that in fiscal 2026 so far, 17 companies have granted special awards to more than 40 executives, totaling more than $600 million. Of course, the largest special pay package in history was Tesla (ASX: TSLA)'s pay plan for Elon Musk last November, with some targets including establishing a Mars colony and large orbital data centers. A $26 billion award for Musk in 2025 was later canceled. The Wall Street Journal excluded Tesla data when compiling totals and industry trends. Securities filings show that at the end of December last year, CrowdStrike (ASX: CRWD) granted co-founder Kurtz a $188 million restricted stock special award. On top of that, under the regular pay plan, he received 54 million restricted shares, nearly $3 million in cash, and $2.5 million in private jet travel benefits. If the company continues to meet shareholder return targets through 2028, Kurtz could receive more shares under the December award, worth up to $290 million at the time, or nothing if performance falls far short. After the award was granted, CrowdStrike's stock doubled, sharply increasing the award's value. CrowdStrike said the award was meant to keep Kurtz focused on multiyear strategy amid fierce competition for cybersecurity executive talent. A spokesperson said: "The vast majority of his compensation requires creating long-term shareholder returns to be realized."

Retention awards do not always retain executives. Nike (ASX: NKE) granted five executives a total of $35 million in special awards in the prior fiscal year, including $4.1 million to then-CFO Matthew Friend; CEO Elliott Hill received $15 million in special awards after just over a year in the role. Friend also received a $3.3 million retention award the previous year, half of which was originally set to vest last month. The other half required Nike's stock to stay above $100 for a sufficient period, but the stock failed to meet that level. Nike then announced in June that Friend would step down as CFO within two months and leave in early September, receiving $6 million in cash severance. Based on his tenure, Friend will likely keep at least part of the retention award, about $1.2 million in stock at recent prices. Nike's regulatory filings show he could receive more if the company meets an undisclosed operating margin target by the end of 2027. Nike did not respond to a request for comment.