How American Express Pays
American Express runs a numbered colleague band framework from Band 20 servicing roles to Band 90 group president, pays cash plus discretionary RSUs and 100% PRSU executive equity, disclosed $46.24M of 2025 CEO pay at an 814:1 ratio, across 22 markets in 14 countries.
Band Hierarchy
American Express runs a numbered band framework internally but has never published a global grade catalogue. Bands 30, 35, 40 and 45 are unusually visible because employee salary submissions carry the band label, and the mapping to analyst, senior engineer or manager, director or staff engineer and vice president is consistent across both research bundles. Bands 20 to 28 and 50 to 90 are far weaker, and only the chairman and chief executive and the non-management directors carry a real company disclosure.
Colleague band ladder — Band 20 through Band 45
Leadership band ladder — Band 50 through Band 90
Executive and board
Disclosed executive layer
Track divergence
Hierarchy qualifications and legacy structures
- American Express has never published a company-wide grade dictionary. The Band 30, 35, 40 and 45 mapping is corroborated by Levels.fyi band-labelled submissions in the United States, India and the United Kingdom, but it is not a company disclosure.
- The same band carries different titles in different functions. Band 30 is an engineer or analyst in technology and a manager in some operations teams, so a title alone never identifies a band.
- Bands 50, 60 and 70 are treated here as separate rungs for modelling purposes. No public source distinguishes them, and the leadership rows should be read as an envelope rather than a range American Express recognises.
- Financial-services vice president titles do not translate to technology-company vice president scope. Comparisons should use span of control, budget and risk accountability rather than the word itself.
- No merger-derived legacy band harmonisation was identified in either bundle. The band framework is long standing rather than the product of a recent integration.
- American Express Global Business Travel and the AMEX Middle East joint venture are separate employers. Salary records surfaced under those names must not be blended into American Express Company pay.
Peer-level mapping
| Band | Archetype | Peer mapping | Caveat |
|---|---|---|---|
| B20 | Entry Operations / Customer Service | Entry servicing roles at Discover, Synchrony and Capital One contact centres | Band 20 and Band 25 evidence is the thinnest in the whole ladder; American Express publishes no title-to-band chart for servicing work.Modeled from United States servicing postings and anonymous submissions; no band-labelled public record exists at this level. |
| B25 | Associate / Senior Customer Care | Senior servicing and fraud operations roles across large card issuers | A team coordinator title appears at this band in some operations groups, which makes cross-company title matching unreliable.Modeled from United States servicing postings and anonymous submissions; no band-labelled public record exists at this level. |
| B28 | Senior Associate / Assistant Manager | Associate analyst and team lead roles at Visa, Mastercard and large banks | Band 28 sits between the servicing bands and the professional ladder and is the least consistently evidenced rung of the whole framework.Modeled from the gap between the servicing anchors and the observed Band 30 professional anchor. |
| B30 | Analyst / Engineer / Manager | Mid-level individual contributor at a large bank; Visa or Mastercard analyst tier | Band 30 spans far more functions than a pure technology ladder, so a single peer level cannot describe it.A United States Band 30 software engineer submission shows $104,844 total on $97,808 base and $6,982 bonus; current Phoenix postings run $103,750 to $174,750. |
| B35 | Manager / Senior Manager / Senior Engineer | Senior engineer, manager or senior product manager at a payments network | Managerial title inflation varies sharply across financial institutions, so scope is a better comparator than the word manager.A United States Band 35 software engineer submission shows $195,858 total on $168,641 base, $25,884 bonus and $1,333 stock; non-technical functions read materially lower. |
| B40 | Director / Staff Engineer | Director or staff engineer; often a senior manager to director scope at a bank | The title mapping at Band 40 is more stable than the pay range, and observed bonus leverage runs anywhere from 14 to 28 percent of base.United States submissions show a Band 40 software engineer near $268,750 total and a software engineering manager near $255,654; a New York chief of staff sample reads about $295,000. |
| B45 | Vice President / Principal Engineer | Vice president at a card issuer or bank, not a corporate-officer VP at a technology company | Financial-services VP titles sit well below technology-company VP scope, and the public Band 45 sample is dominated by one product-management observation.A United States Band 45 product manager submission shows about $375,972 total on $221,667 base, $109,583 bonus and $44,722 stock; the technical Band 45 sample reads nearer $258,000. |
| B50 | Vice President / Distinguished Engineer | Senior vice president at a mid-cap issuer or a distinguished engineer tier elsewhere | Bands 50, 60 and 70 are not officially distinguished in any American Express disclosure; the separation here is a modelling convention.Modeled from the gap between the observed Band 45 anchors and the disclosed named-executive floor of $12.58 million. |
| B60 | Senior Vice President tier / Fellow | Senior vice president at a payments network | No American Express disclosure covers this layer; the row bridges observed Band 45 pay and the named-executive tables.Modeled interpolation between the observed professional bands and the disclosed named-executive officers. |
| B70 | Senior Vice President / Senior Fellow | Senior vice president or business unit head at Visa, Mastercard or Capital One | Only officers who qualify as named executives appear in the compensation tables; every other senior vice president is invisible in the public record.Modeled interpolation between the observed professional bands and the disclosed named-executive officers. |
| B80 | Executive Vice President / President | Named executive officers at Visa, Mastercard, Synchrony and Capital One | The four non-CEO named executives reported 2025 totals of $12.58 million to $15.58 million, so this modelled row sits below the observed disclosure range.Modeled title mapping; the authoritative figures for this layer are the Summary Compensation Table rows rather than this envelope. |
| B90 | Group President / Vice Chairman | Group presidents and vice chairmen at large diversified card issuers | Individually benchmarked roles; the Compensation and Benefits Committee sets each package rather than applying a band range.Modeled title mapping; Douglas E. Buckminster's disclosed 2025 total of $15.576 million is the closest real observation. |
| CEO | Chairman and Chief Executive Officer | Visa, Mastercard, Synchrony, Capital One and PayPal chief executives | The 2025 Summary Compensation Table total is a grant-date accounting value, not realized pay, and includes a $5.40 million performance stock option grant that no longer exists in the 2026 design.2025 Summary Compensation Table: $23,486,257 of stock awards plus $5,399,962 of option awards, and $4,230,116 of all other compensation plus $66,178 of pension and deferred earnings. The 2026 target direct compensation package is $43.0 million. |
| Board | Non-management director | Large-cap United States financial services boards | A governance package rather than an employment band; the chief executive receives no incremental pay for board service.The $110,000 board cash retainer plus the $240,000 annual Share Equivalent Unit grant. Actual 2025 director totals ran roughly $362,000 to $648,000 once committee retainers and partial-year service are included. |
Critical evidence warning
American Express does not publish salary ranges, band minimums, band midpoints or a bonus target grid for any colleague below the named executive officers. Every non-executive figure in this report is either a third-party observation or a calibrated model around one, and should be used for orientation rather than quoted as an American Express pay band.
Compensation by Band — New York
Low / median / high annual values at 1.00× base and 1.00× total-compensation factors versus New York. Total equals base plus bonus plus annualized equity.
| Band | Title | Base | Variable | Total TC | Equity |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| B20 | Entry Operations / Customer Service 0–2 years · modeled | $43K – $58K | 5% | $53K $45K – $60K | — |
| B25 | Associate / Senior Customer Care 0–3 years · modeled | $49K – $67K | 5% | $61K $52K – $70K | — |
| B28 | Senior Associate / Assistant Manager 1–4 years · modeled | $61K – $83K | 7% | $77K $65K – $89K | — |
| B30 | Analyst / Engineer / Manager 2–7 years; United States technical submissions skew 1–5 and India submissions 3–7 · reported | $108K – $145K | 10% | $142K $121K – $163K | $3K |
| B35 | Manager / Senior Manager / Senior Engineer 5–12 years · reported | $150K – $202K | 15% | $213K $181K – $245K | $11K |
| B40 | Director / Staff Engineer 9–16 years · reported | $206K – $278K | 20% | $337K $287K – $388K | $47K |
| B45 | Vice President / Principal Engineer 13–20 years · reported | $271K – $367K | 30% | $593K $504K – $682K | $179K |
| B50 | Vice President / Distinguished Engineer 16–24 years · modeled | $341K – $462K | 40% | $1.11M $945K – $1.28M | $550K |
| B60 | Senior Vice President tier / Fellow 18–28 years · modeled | $444K – $601K | 60% | $3.45M $2.93M – $3.97M | $2.61M |
| B70 | Senior Vice President / Senior Fellow 22+ years · modeled | $608K – $822K | 80% | $5.41M $4.60M – $6.22M | $4.13M |
| B80 | Executive Vice President / President 25+ years · modeled | $842K – $1.14M | 120% | $9.33M $7.93M – $10.73M | $7.15M |
| B90 | Group President / Vice Chairman 25+ years · modeled | $1.03M – $1.39M | 180% | $14.39M $12.23M – $16.55M | $11.00M |
| CEO | Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Executive succession based · verified | $1.47M – $1.99M | 357% | $46.24M $39.30M – $53.18M | $28.89M |
| Board | Non-management director Senior executive or board background · verified | $94K – $127K | — | $350K $298K – $403K | $240K |
Total Compensation Range by Band
Total compensation in New York across the employee bands. Proxy-disclosed executive cohorts are excluded so the employee bands stay readable.
Global Footprint & Pay Arbitrage
American Express reported 76,800 colleagues at 31 December 2025, of whom 25,900 were in the United States and 50,900 outside it. New York is the pay anchor and the global headquarters; Gurugram is the largest international campus at nearly one million square feet, and every other market is calibrated against the New York median.
Office and market catalogue — calibration factors versus New York
| Location | Likely office profile | Presence | Base | TC |
|---|---|---|---|---|
New York United States · USD | Global headquarters; leadership, product, client and control functions | Official careers location directory | 1.00× | 1.00× |
Phoenix United States · USD | Technology, operations, servicing and risk hub | Official careers location directory | 0.82× | 0.82× |
Sunrise United States · USD | Florida technology and operations hub | Official careers location directory | 0.80× | 0.80× |
Salt Lake City United States · USD | American Express National Bank, technology, risk and operations | Official careers location directory | 0.79× | 0.79× |
Atlanta United States · USD | Commercial, client and partnership roles | Official careers location directory | 0.84× | 0.84× |
Gurugram India · INR | Largest international campus; delivery, servicing, technology and operations | Official careers page; campus of nearly one million square feet | 0.13× | 0.13× |
Bangalore India · INR | Technology, engineering, data science and product hub | Official careers page | 0.14× | 0.14× |
Mumbai India · INR | Client, finance, marketing and commercial functions | Official careers page | 0.14× | 0.14× |
London United Kingdom · GBP | Regional leadership, finance, client and product hub | Official careers location directory | 0.55× | 0.55× |
Brighton United Kingdom · GBP | Servicing, operations, risk and technology | Official careers page; Burgess Hill sits in the same cluster | 0.48× | 0.48× |
Sydney Australia · AUD | Australia headquarters; client, product, legal and servicing functions | Official careers page | 0.56× | 0.56× |
Toronto Canada · CAD | Canada headquarters; product, client, risk and technology | Official careers location directory | 0.48× | 0.48× |
Markham Canada · CAD | Operations, technology and servicing | Official careers location directory | 0.46× | 0.46× |
Mexico City Mexico · MXN | Issuing, client, servicing and operations | Official careers location directory | 0.16× | 0.16× |
Buenos Aires Argentina · ARS | Servicing, operations and regional support | Official careers location directory | 0.08× | 0.08× |
Singapore Singapore · SGD | Asia Pacific regional leadership, client and product hub | Official careers location directory | 0.38× | 0.38× |
Tokyo Japan · JPY | Japan leadership, client, product and servicing; Osaka sits in the same market | Official careers location directory | 0.35× | 0.35× |
Manila Philippines · PHP | Global servicing, contact centre and operations | Official careers and benefits page | 0.10× | 0.10× |
Madrid Spain · EUR | Continental Europe client, compliance and operations | Official careers location directory | 0.32× | 0.32× |
Frankfurt Germany · EUR | Commercial, client and account management | Official careers location directory | 0.38× | 0.38× |
Auckland New Zealand · NZD | New Zealand client and servicing office | Official careers and benefits page | 0.45× | 0.45× |
Dubai United Arab Emirates · AED | Middle East regional client and partnership coverage | Regional coverage; the Middle East licensee is a separate joint venture | 0.45× | 0.45× |
American Express does not publish city-level headcount anywhere in its filings or careers pages, so this catalogue cannot rank offices by employee count. The only geographic split disclosed is 25,900 United States colleagues against 50,900 outside the United States. Gurugram is identified as a major hub by campus floor area rather than by any published number of colleagues.
New York anchor medians — the basis of every modeled cell
| Band | Base | Stock | Bonus | Other | Total |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| B30 | $127K | $3K | $13K | — | $142K |
| B35 | $176K | $11K | $26K | — | $213K |
| B40 | $242K | $47K | $48K | — | $337K |
| B45 | $319K | $179K | $96K | — | $593K |
| CEO | $1.73M | $28.89M | $11.33M | $4.30M | $46.24M |
| Board | $110K | $240K | $0 | — | $350K |
- The New York column is the anchor. It is derived from the bundles' United States national model multiplied by the New York location index of 1.10 for every professional and leadership band, and 1.00 for the servicing bands.
- Band 30 through Band 45 are the only rows with direct band-labelled observations. The United States anchors come from Levels.fyi records at about $104,844 for Band 30, $195,858 for Band 35, $268,750 for Band 40 and $375,972 for Band 45.
- India carries the deepest non-United States sample. Bangalore Band 30 software submissions cluster near 2.48 million rupees total and Band 35 near 5.46 million rupees, with business analyst records at the same bands running roughly a third lower.
- Total compensation in India runs at roughly 22 percent of the New York anchor at Band 30 and rises toward 35 percent at Band 45, because senior Indian packages carry a much larger bonus and equity component. The onshore to offshore base multiplier falls from about 4.6 times at Band 30 to about 2.8 times at Band 45.
- Band 60 and above are modelled title mappings rather than local pay ranges. The chief executive and director rows are proxy disclosures converted for comparison only and are excluded from the range chart.
Model rules
- Every modelled cell is the New York median multiplied by the city base or total factor and then by the 25 August 2026 foreign-exchange snapshot.
- The bundles publish three city indices, one for entry roles, one for professional roles and one for leadership roles. Those become the junior-band factor and the senior-band factor here, and every band in between is interpolated by seniority, which is why offshore markets sit far below New York at Band 20 and much closer at Band 50.
- A total compensation cell is base plus target variable pay plus the modelled annual equity value. Sign-on payments, relocation, onsite allowances and one-time retention awards are excluded.
- United States cities carry a single flat factor because their entry, professional and leadership indices differ by less than two percentage points.
- Argentina is the least reliable market in the set. Multiple exchange rates and rapid inflation mean the Buenos Aires column should be treated as an order-of-magnitude indication rather than a benchmark.
Variable Pay & Annual Cash Incentive
American Express publishes the named executive Annual Incentive Award in unusual detail and publishes nothing at all about the colleague bonus grid. The company scorecard, multipliers, gates and payout history below are company disclosures; the band targets are modelled from bonus components observed in public salary submissions.
| Band | Target | Mechanism | Recent payout |
|---|---|---|---|
B20 Entry Operations / Customer Service | 5% of base | Annual target on company, business and individual factors. | Not publicly disclosed |
B25 Associate / Senior Customer Care | 5% of base | Annual target on company, business and individual factors. | Not publicly disclosed |
B28 Senior Associate / Assistant Manager | 7% of base | Annual target on company, business and individual factors. | Not publicly disclosed |
B30 Analyst / Engineer / Manager | 10% of base | Annual target on company, business and individual factors. Observed bonus ratios run 4 to 10 percent of base in the United States and 5 to 10 percent in India. | Not publicly disclosed |
B35 Manager / Senior Manager / Senior Engineer | 15% of base | Annual target with a team delivery component. Observed ratios run 13 to 16 percent of base in the United States and 10 to 11 percent in India. | Not publicly disclosed |
B40 Director / Staff Engineer | 20% of base | Annual target weighted toward organisation results. Observed ratios run 14 to more than 28 percent in the United States and 22 to 39 percent in Indian management samples. | Not publicly disclosed |
B45 Vice President / Principal Engineer | 30% of base | Annual target weighted toward business-unit results. Sparse United States samples show 22 to 49 percent of base. | Not publicly disclosed |
B50 Vice President / Distinguished Engineer | 40% of base | Executive-style plan on enterprise and business-unit performance. | Not publicly disclosed |
B60 Senior Vice President tier / Fellow | 60% of base | Executive-style plan on enterprise and business-unit performance. | Not publicly disclosed |
B70 Senior Vice President / Senior Fellow | 80% of base | Executive-style plan on enterprise and business-unit performance. | Not publicly disclosed |
B80 Executive Vice President / President | 120% of base | Annual Incentive Award; company scorecard multiplier times an individual performance multiplier. | 145% company multiplier for 2025, paid February 2026 |
B90 Group President / Vice Chairman | 180% of base | Annual Incentive Award; company scorecard multiplier times an individual performance multiplier. | 145% company multiplier for 2025, paid February 2026 |
CEO Chairman and Chief Executive Officer | 357% of base | Annual Incentive Award on a $6.25 million 2026 target; company scorecard times individual multiplier. | 181% of target for 2025, or $11,328,125 against a $6,250,000 target |
Board Non-management director | No variable pay | Fixed cash retainers plus committee retainers; directors may defer up to 100 percent of fees into cash or Share Equivalent Units. | Not publicly disclosed |
Executive incentive targets — percent of salary
Named-executive outcomes
| Executive | Target | Paid | Attainment |
|---|---|---|---|
| Stephen J. Squeri, 2025 performance year | $6,250,000 | $11,328,125 | 181% of target on a 145% company multiplier |
| Stephen J. Squeri, 2024 performance year | $6,000,000 | $10,500,000 | 175% of target on a 140% company multiplier |
Employee payout timing and history
American Express publishes no bonus target grid by band and no enterprise payout history for colleagues. The 145 percent 2025 company multiplier applies to the executive plan and must not be read as a companywide bonus multiplier. The band targets shown here are modelled from bonus components observed in public salary submissions, and the observed dispersion is wide: two Band 40 records in the same market can show 14 percent and 28 percent of base.
Sales and special incentives
American Express does not disclose quota structures, commission rates, accelerators or draw arrangements for its commercial, merchant or partner sales organisations. Client-facing roles in this model carry the same modelled targets as their band peers, which will understate on-target earnings for quota-carrying sellers in Global Commercial Services and Global Merchant and Network Services.
Equity — RSUs, PSUs, Options & ESPP
American Express is a United States issuer, so colleague equity means restricted stock units rather than an Indian-style employee stock ownership plan, and there is no confirmed broad-based employee stock purchase plan. Equity is discretionary at every band: the shareholder-approved plan permits broad eligibility but no public source records a minimum band for a routine grant.
- Outstanding awards at 31 December 2025 were 2,300,948 options, 1,313,057 time-based restricted stock units and 3,036,866 performance restricted stock units at target, totalling 6,650,871 securities.
- Outstanding awards represent about 27.5 percent of outstanding plus available securities. That is a snapshot ratio calculated here, not a company-reported utilisation rate.
- The weighted-average exercise price of outstanding options was $163.02. Restricted stock units and performance restricted stock units carry no exercise price, so a large part of the outstanding inventory has no strike to clear.
- The 2026 move to 100 percent performance restricted stock units means the option balance will run off over time without replacement in the executive programme.
- The proxy excludes employee stock purchase plans from its equity compensation plan table and no current broad-based purchase plan terms were located, so a discounted share purchase benefit should not be assumed.
Equity plan inventory at 31 December 2025
Vesting — common reported employee schedule
Two distinct patterns exist and should not be merged. Colleague restricted stock units reported through salary submissions follow a four-year schedule of roughly 25 percent a year, with monthly vesting after the first anniversary in the reported model. Named executive performance restricted stock units cliff-vest in a single instalment at the end of a three-year performance period, and the prior performance stock options became fully exercisable on the third anniversary with a ten-year term and a positive cumulative net income condition.
Eligibility by hierarchy level
- There is no published minimum band for a routine grant. Band 30 submissions usually show zero stock, Band 35 shows small and inconsistent values, Band 40 shows stock more frequently, and material equity only becomes common at Band 45 and above.
- The illustrative annual grant values by band are an analytical policy hypothesis, not an entitlement schedule. They run from zero at Bands 20 to 28, through $0 to $5,000 at Band 30 and $10,000 to $75,000 at Band 40, to $75,000 to $250,000 at Band 45 and $200,000 to $800,000 at Band 50.
- Any source claiming a fixed company-wide grant by band should be treated with suspicion unless it is backed by an offer letter or a plan document.
- The 2016 Plan permits broad eligibility, but the awards themselves are discretionary. Broad permission in a plan document is not the same as a grant entitlement.
- Executive grants are made in February for the prior performance year. The February 2026 grants were $35.00 million for Squeri, $9.40 million for Le Caillec, $8.30 million for Grosfield, $7.85 million for Joabar and $6.90 million for Buckminster.
Indicative annual grant value by band — New York
| Band | Annual value (USD) | Median | Shares at $337.58 |
|---|---|---|---|
| B30 | $2K – $3K | $3K | ~6–10 |
| B35 | $8K – $14K | $11K | ~24–41 |
| B40 | $35K – $58K | $47K | ~104–173 |
| B45 | $134K – $223K | $179K | ~397–662 |
| B50 | $413K – $688K | $550K | ~1,222–2,037 |
| B60 | $1.96M – $3.27M | $2.61M | ~5,804–9,674 |
| B70 | $3.09M – $5.16M | $4.13M | ~9,164–15,274 |
| B80 | $5.36M – $8.94M | $7.15M | ~15,885–26,475 |
| B90 | $8.25M – $13.75M | $11.00M | ~24,439–40,731 |
| CEO | $21.66M – $36.11M | $28.89M | ~64,176–106,961 |
| Board | $180K – $300K | $240K | ~533–889 |
Annualized planning value (±25%), not the face value of every new-hire grant. Share equivalents use the $337.58 reference price at 25 August 2026 snapshot and ignore plan valuation rules and PSU performance. Highlighted rows are disclosed grant-date stock awards.
Named executive target equity
| Executive | Target | Units / structure |
|---|---|---|
Stephen J. Squeri Chairman and Chief Executive Officer | $35.00M February 2026 grant | 100 percent performance restricted stock units, about 103,679 shares at the $337.58 reference price. Three-year cliff on relative return on equity with a relative total shareholder return modifier, capped at 150 percent of target. |
Christophe Le Caillec Chief Financial Officer | $9.40M February 2026 grant | 100 percent performance restricted stock units, about 27,845 shares at the reference price, on the same three-year relative return on equity design. |
Howard M. Grosfield Group President, U.S. Consumer Services | $8.30M February 2026 grant | 100 percent performance restricted stock units, about 24,587 shares at the reference price, on the same three-year relative return on equity design. |
Raymond Joabar Group President, Global Commercial Services | $7.85M February 2026 grant | 100 percent performance restricted stock units, about 23,254 shares at the reference price, on the same three-year relative return on equity design. |
Douglas E. Buckminster Former Vice Chairman | $6.90M February 2026 grant | 100 percent performance restricted stock units, about 20,440 shares at the reference price, granted for 2025 performance shortly before his March 2026 retirement. |
Executive Compensation
2025 Summary Compensation Table values from the 2026 proxy statement. Stock and option awards are combined into a single equity column here; these are grant-date accounting values rather than cash realized, and the proxy states roughly 96 percent of the chief executive's 2025 pay was performance based with 73 percent tied to future performance.
Reading the package
Salary was 3.7 percent of the chief executive's 2025 reported total, the Annual Incentive Award 24.5 percent, stock awards 50.8 percent, option awards 11.7 percent and all other compensation 9.1 percent. From the February 2026 grant the option component disappears entirely, so the equity share becomes pure performance restricted stock units. The 2026 target direct compensation package of $43.0 million is 4 percent below the 2025 reported total, which shows how much of the reported figure is accounting treatment rather than a raise.
Peer totals reflect grant-date accounting, one-time awards and pension and perquisite rules, and none of them equal realized pay. Capital One's figure includes a $30 million Discover-related special award, without which it is about $34.97 million and falls below American Express. Synchrony disclosed a 337 to 1 pay ratio and Mastercard 284 to 1 on the same 2025 cycle.
Named Executive Officers & Board
American Express moved through a leadership transition during 2025 and 2026. Anré Williams announced in January 2025 that he would leave later that year, and Vice Chairman Douglas E. Buckminster retired effective March 2026. Both changed the named executive composition without implying any change to broad colleague pay policy.
Stock and option awards are combined into one equity column in the table above; the underlying 2025 split for the chief executive was $23,486,257 of stock awards and $5,399,962 of option awards. The other column combines all other compensation with the change in pension value and deferred earnings. Squeri's disclosed totals were $46.24 million for 2025, $37.16 million for 2024 and $35.68 million for 2023, so the 2025 figure is a material step up driven by equity valuation and the 145 percent company multiplier. Anna Marrs, who leads Global Merchant and Network Services, did not qualify as a named executive officer for 2025 and therefore has no compensation table despite appearing in Section 16 filings.
Board compensation framework
| Element | Amount | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Annual board cash retainer | $110,000 | Paid to each non-management director; the chairman and chief executive receives no incremental pay for board service. |
| Annual Share Equivalent Unit grant | $240,000 | Cash-settled units tracking the common share price with dividends credited, paid out in cash after board separation. |
| Lead Independent Director | $100,000 | Additional retainer on top of the standard board cash retainer. |
| Audit and Risk Committee | $40,000 chair increment / $20,000 member | The largest committee retainers, reflecting the regulatory workload. |
| Compensation and Benefits and Nominating committees | $30,000 chair increment / $15,000 member | Applies to each of the other standing committees. |
| Fee deferral | Up to 100% | Directors may defer their entire annual retainer into a cash account or a Share Equivalent Unit account. |
Total 2025 director compensation ranged from roughly $362,000 to $648,000 depending on committee roles, other compensation and whether the director served a full year. The band row in this report uses the $110,000 retainer plus the $240,000 unit grant, which is the standard package before committee work.
Regional heads and other officers
Laureen Seeger as Chief Legal Officer, Monique Herena as Chief Colleague Experience Officer, Denise Pickett as President of Enterprise Shared Services, Ravikumar Radhakrishnan as Chief Information Officer, Glenda G. McNeal as Chief Partner Officer and Jessica Quinn Lieberman as Controller are executive officers with no compensation disclosure at all. Their pay is visible only through Section 16 share movements. Regional and market president compensation outside the named executive group is not published anywhere, so the proxy cannot be used to price a country or regional leadership role.
Insider Trades — SEC Forms 3/4/5
American Express is a New York Stock Exchange issuer, so the governing record is SEC Forms 3, 4 and 5. Indian frameworks such as BSE and NSE corporate filings, SEBI SAST and promoter-group disclosures do not apply, and no inference should be drawn from any single sale, which can reflect tax, diversification, vesting or a pre-arranged plan.
| Date | Person | Transaction | Shares | Price | Value |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2026-08-18 | Monique Herena Chief Colleague Experience Officer | Sale The most recent insider transaction in the research window. | 8,811 | $337.41 | $2.97M |
| 2026-06-15 | Glenda G. McNeal Chief Partner Officer | Sale Open-market disposal by an executive officer with no compensation table. | 7,033 | $339.36 | $2.39M |
| 2026-03-06 | Jessica Quinn Lieberman Executive Vice President and Controller | Sale Executed at the lowest share price in the visible 2026 sequence. | 3,032 | $300.02 | $910K |
| 2026-02-19 | Raymond Joabar Group President, Global Commercial Services | Sale Follows the February performance unit vesting and grant cycle. | 14,000 | $340.67 | $4.77M |
| 2026-02-12 | Howard M. Grosfield Group President, U.S. Consumer Services | Sale Follows the February performance unit vesting and grant cycle. | 8,134 | $346.73 | $2.82M |
| 2026-02-09 | Ravikumar Radhakrishnan Chief Information Officer | Sale One of three disposals above $5 million in the window. | 15,000 | $356.58 | $5.35M |
| 2026-02-09 | Laureen Seeger Chief Legal Officer | Sale Executed at the highest observed price in the sequence. | 12,737 | $360.99 | $4.60M |
| 2026-02-05 | Denise Pickett President, Enterprise Shared Services | Sale The second largest single disposal in the window. | 23,385 | $356.91 | $8.35M |
| 2026-02-05 | Anna Marrs Group President, Global Merchant and Network Services | Purchase Exercise of performance stock options at the $173.61 grant price, not an open-market purchase. | 14,992 | $173.61 | $2.60M |
| 2026-02-05 | Anna Marrs Group President, Global Merchant and Network Services | Sale The largest disposal in the window, filed alongside the option exercise on the same day. | 27,425 | $350.01 | $9.60M |
| 2026-02-01 | Stephen J. Squeri Chairman and Chief Executive Officer | Settlement Vesting of the February 2023 performance restricted stock unit award, valued at the $352.17 same-day price. | 123,033 | — | $43.33M |
| 2026-02-01 | Stephen J. Squeri Chairman and Chief Executive Officer | Withholding Shares surrendered to cover tax on the settlement, which is about 51 percent of the vested award. | 62,466 | $352.17 | $22.00M |
| 2026-02-01 | Christophe Le Caillec Chief Financial Officer | Settlement Vesting of the February 2023 performance restricted stock unit award at the same $352.17 price. | 17,280 | — | $6.09M |
| 2026-02-01 | Christophe Le Caillec Chief Financial Officer | Withholding Shares surrendered to cover tax on the settlement. | 9,146 | $352.17 | $3.22M |
Reading guide
Benefits & Perks
American Express publishes benefit categories on its country careers pages rather than plan documents, so the picture is broad but rarely quantified. Everything below comes from an official careers page or a filing unless marked otherwise, and the pages themselves warn that plans change and carry eligibility requirements.
United States
- Retirement — Retirement Savings Plan with a company match up to 6 percent of eligible pay. The match is immediately vested. A separate 2 percent annual fixed contribution applies to manager-level colleagues and above and generally vests after three years. An earlier company disclosure described the match as 100 percent of contributions up to 6 percent of total pay after six months of service. [official]
- Medical — Medical, dental and vision insurance with health and flexible spending accounts. Free mental-health counselling and wellness coaching are included. The insurer, coverage amounts and employee premium contributions are not published on the careers pages. [official]
- Leave — Paid time off and 20 or more weeks of parental leave. Several United States location pages state 20-plus weeks. Exact accrual rates and holiday counts are not published. [official]
- Protection — Life, accident, short-term and long-term disability coverage. Offered alongside family-planning support and child and elder care resources at some sites. [official]
- Working model — Amex Flex onsite or hybrid depending on role. Commuter benefits and personal financial coaching are offered on top. Role classification, not individual preference, drives the onsite requirement. [official]
Global programs
- Working model — Amex Flex. The enterprise work model. Roles are classified onsite or hybrid according to role and business need rather than individual choice. [official]
- Growth — American Express University and leadership development programmes. Career Growth @ Amex and the internal Project Marketplace support internal mobility across businesses and geographies. Exact external learning platform licences were not verified and are not asserted. [official]
- Support — Employee Assistance and wellbeing support. Free mental-health counselling appears on every major country page reviewed, which makes it the most consistently offered benefit in the global set. [official]
- Community — Colleague networks. Networks span gender, race, disability, generation, faith, veterans and virtual workers, with real-time coaching and manager-led development alongside. [official]
- Pay equity — Annual third-party pay-equity reviews. American Express has publicly described annual pay-equity reviews considering tenure, role, level, geography, merit and performance, and previously reported 100 percent adjusted global gender pay equity and United States race and ethnicity pay equity. Global like-for-like statistics for the current year were not located. [reported]
Benefit fields not publicly quantified
The health insurer and exact coverage amounts, India leave-day counts, food coupons, National Pension System contribution, cab and internet allowances, United States medical premium contributions and fund menu, United Kingdom pension contribution rate and annual-leave days, the Australian employer-paid health amount and any global sabbatical policy are all absent from the public pages. No global sabbatical policy was located. These are recorded as not publicly disclosed rather than estimated, and benefits vary by legal entity, country, employment status and eligibility in every case.
Performance Review & Pay Progression
American Express publishes a detailed executive performance framework and nothing at all about the colleague review process. The company describes competitive total compensation and annual pay-equity reviews, and executive objectives are set at the start of the year with company and individual performance reviewed after year end, but no global rating scale, calibration rule or increase matrix exists in the public record.
Not publicly disclosed
Modeled promotion planning timeline
| Band | Years to next scope | Promotion hike | Status |
|---|---|---|---|
| B20 | 1–2 years to Band 25 for a 6 to 12 percent increase | Not disclosed | Modeled planning interval |
| B25 | 1.5–3 years to Band 28 for an 8 to 15 percent increase | Not disclosed | Modeled planning interval |
| B28 | 1.5–3 years to Band 30 for an 8 to 15 percent increase | Not disclosed | Modeled planning interval |
| B30 | 2–4 years to Band 35 for a 12 to 25 percent increase | Not disclosed | Modeled planning interval |
| B35 | 3–6 years to Band 40 for a 15 to 30 percent increase | Not disclosed | Modeled planning interval |
| B40 | 3–6 years to Band 45 for a 15 to 35 percent increase | Not disclosed | Modeled planning interval |
| B45 | Vacancy and succession based above this point | Not disclosed | Modeled planning interval |
| B50 | Not publicly disclosed | Not disclosed | Modeled planning interval |
| B60 | Not publicly disclosed | Not disclosed | Modeled planning interval |
| B70 | Not publicly disclosed | Not disclosed | Modeled planning interval |
| B80 | Committee appointment | Not disclosed | Modeled planning interval |
| B90 | Committee appointment | Not disclosed | Modeled planning interval |
| CEO | Board appointment | Not disclosed | Modeled planning interval |
| Board | Annual re-election | Not disclosed | Modeled planning interval |
The only reliable calendar signal is the executive one. The 2025 Annual Incentive Award was paid in February 2026 and the 2026 long-term grants were made in the same month, so committee decisions land in the first quarter for the prior performance year. Anonymous colleague discussions frequently reference an annual cycle around February and vacancy-driven promotion windows, but the reports are not consistent enough to treat as policy.
Pay progression evidence
Modelled progression, not company policy: Band 20 to 25 typically takes 1 to 2 years for a 6 to 12 percent increase; Band 25 to 28 takes 1.5 to 3 years for 8 to 15 percent; Band 28 to 30 takes 1.5 to 3 years for 8 to 15 percent; Band 30 to 35 takes 2 to 4 years for 12 to 25 percent; Band 35 to 40 takes 3 to 6 years for 15 to 30 percent; and Band 40 to 45 takes 3 to 6 years for 15 to 35 percent. Above Band 45, movement is vacancy and succession based and individually benchmarked. Colleague reports cite annual increases from mid-single digits to the mid-teens, with the higher figures attached to promotions or market corrections, and those observations are sample-dependent rather than a matrix.
H-1B / LCA Visa Footprint — United States
American Express files through several legal entities, chiefly American Express Travel Related Services Company, alongside American Express Company and American Express National Bank. Counts from different aggregators and entities must not be added without deduplication, and every wage below is a proffered base attestation that excludes bonus and equity.
Dataset summary
| Dataset | Result | Interpretation |
|---|---|---|
| H1BData.info FY2025 | 430 records at a $148,000 median | Distribution of roughly 49 percent between $100,000 and $150,000, 38 percent between $150,000 and $200,000 and 10 percent above $200,000. Other snapshots of the same source during research ranged from 359 to 430 records. |
| H1BGrader FY2025 snapshot | 778 applications at a $147,700 median and a $152,218 average | 75th percentile $165,977, minimum $73,067 and maximum $750,000. |
| H1BGrader annual series | $147,392 median and $152,217 average for FY2025 | A nearly identical result from the same publisher, differing only by refresh date and filter, which is a useful illustration of aggregator drift. |
| American Express Company entity, FY2026 | About a $147,946 average | Observed range roughly $107,871 to $200,000. A separate legal entity from Travel Related Services and not additive to it. |
| Software engineer multi-year corpus | About a $145,000 median | FY2022 through FY2026 software-engineer filings; Phoenix and Sunrise both sit near $145,000 and New York near $162,000. |
| Historical city aggregation | Lower medians across the board | A separate historical dataset shows Phoenix at about $129,243, New York at $131,599, Sunrise at $130,000 and Salt Lake City at $110,640, because it aggregates older filing years rather than FY2025 alone. |
City-level H-1B wage history
| City | P25 | Median | P75 | Records |
|---|---|---|---|---|
Phoenix, Arizona The largest filing concentration by a wide margin. The historical aggregation for the same city reads far lower at about $129,243, which shows how much the filing-year window matters. | $130K | $145,000 | $160K | 613 |
New York, New York The highest city median in the corpus, consistent with the headquarters role mix and the 1.10 New York pay index used elsewhere in this report. | $145K | $162,000 | $185K | 76 |
Sunrise, Florida A major technology and operations site that prices almost identically to Phoenix on H-1B base wages. | $125K | $145,000 | $158K | 76 |
Salt Lake City and Sandy, Utah Insufficient city-level public aggregation exists for a defensible record count, so the quantiles here are modelled. A separate historical dataset shows Sandy at about $137,819 against Salt Lake City at $110,640. | $115K | $130,000 | $150K | 0 |
Atlanta, Georgia Insufficient public aggregation for a record count; the historical dataset reads much higher at about $148,733 on a small sample. | $120K | $135,000 | $155K | 0 |
Palo Alto, California The highest observed city median in the historical dataset at about $150,162, reflecting a small high-cost technology presence rather than a major worksite. | $135K | $150,162 | $175K | 0 |
All-years aggregates. P25/P75 are rounded reconstruction values marked modeled; medians and record counts are the stronger fields.
Selected title / worksite records
| Title | Worksite | Proffered wage | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Software engineer, multi-year corpus | All American Express worksites, FY2022 to FY2026 | About $145,000 median | The dominant job title in the filings and the single best cross-check on the modelled Band 30 to Band 35 anchors. |
| Senior Manager, Data Science | American Express National Bank, 2025 | About $157,272 | A named 2025 filing that sits between the modelled Band 35 and Band 40 United States base anchors. |
| Phoenix software engineer | Phoenix, Arizona | About $145,000 median across 613 records | The deepest single-city sample in the dataset, which is why the Phoenix location factor is one of the better evidenced in this report. |
| New York software engineer | New York, New York | About $162,000 median across 76 records | About 12 percent above Phoenix, close to the 1.10 to 1.22 New York premium implied by the location indices. |
| FY2025 wage floor and ceiling | American Express Travel Related Services | $73,067 minimum and $750,000 maximum | The spread reflects that a single entity files for servicing analysts and senior technology leadership under the same corpus. |
Reading the data correctly
- Labour condition application wages are proffered base salary. They exclude the Annual Incentive Award, any restricted stock unit grant and all benefits, which at Band 40 and above is a large share of the package.
- A labour condition application is a filing, not a hire. Certified applications exceed petitions and petitions exceed actual employees.
- American Express files through at least three legal entities. H1BData.info, H1BGrader and other aggregators apply different entity filters and refresh schedules, which is why FY2025 record counts range from 359 to 778 for what is nominally the same year.
- The city table mixes two dataset generations. The FY2022 to FY2026 software-engineer corpus reads $15,000 to $20,000 above the older historical city aggregation for the same cities, and the two should never be averaged.
- Salt Lake City, Atlanta and Palo Alto carry no public record count, so their quantiles are modelled from the surrounding evidence rather than extracted from a published distribution.
Key Nuances & Insights
American Express bands are genuinely used internally and appear in salary submissions, but the same band carries different titles in different functions. Band 30 is an engineer or analyst in technology and a manager in some operations teams, so quoting a title without a function tells you almost nothing about the level.
There is no published minimum band for a routine grant. Band 30 submissions usually show zero stock and Band 35 shows it inconsistently. Anyone modelling an American Express offer as a technology-company package with a standard annual refresh will overstate it badly below Band 45.
The proxy's equity compensation plan table explicitly excludes purchase plans and no current broad-based plan terms were located in either bundle. The 15 percent lookback discount that is a headline benefit at technology peers should be assumed absent here.
The February 2026 grant moved to 100 percent performance restricted stock units and removed stock options entirely, replacing the prior 80 and 20 split. The redesigned maximum is 150 percent of target shares on relative return on equity with a total shareholder return modifier of plus or minus 20 percent.
The 814 to 1 ratio uses a global median colleague of $56,827 against a workforce that is 50,900 non-United States and 25,900 United States. Mastercard reported a $124,650 median and PayPal $114,331, which is most of why their ratios are a third of this one on similar chief executive pay.
At least 50 percent of total incentive compensation for executive officers is deferred for at least three years, and detriment-conduct provisions cover roughly 1,900 colleagues at vice president level and above. That is a meaningfully wider population than the five names in the proxy.
The New York to Bangalore total compensation multiplier runs about 4.5 times at Band 30 and Band 35, 3.9 times at Band 40, 2.8 times at Band 45 and 2.5 times at Band 50. Senior leadership converges toward global benchmarks while professional roles do not.
Band 45 carries the vice president title, and comparing it to a corporate-officer vice president at a technology company will mislead in both directions. Scope, span of control, budget and risk accountability are the only useful comparators.
American Express Global Business Travel is a separate public company and AMEX Middle East B.S.C. is a joint venture with more than 500 employees. Salary sites surface both under similar names, and neither belongs in an American Express Company pay analysis.
Observed Band 40 bonus ratios run from 14 percent to more than 28 percent of base in the United States and 22 to 39 percent in Indian management samples. Two colleagues at the same band in the same city can differ by a fifth of their package on the variable component alone.
Restructuring expense was $96 million in 2025, $123 million in 2024 and $179 million in 2023, with a $201 million reserve at the 2025 close. That is ongoing targeted activity, not evidence of a companywide pay freeze or mass layoff programme.
Colleague restricted stock units reported by employees follow a four-year schedule. Executive performance units cliff-vest after a three-year performance period. Applying the executive schedule to a colleague grant, or the reverse, produces materially wrong value timing.
Research control
Stephen J. Squeri's $46.24 million sits second in this comparison set, above Mastercard, Visa, PayPal and Synchrony and below Capital One, though Capital One's figure includes a $30 million Discover-related special award without which American Express leads the group. The 814 to 1 ratio is the highest of the set, driven by workforce geography rather than by unusual executive pay. On the colleague side the Band 30 to Band 45 ladder prices below large technology employers in the same cities, chiefly because equity is discretionary rather than a standard component of the package.
Evidence classification
| Label | Meaning | Examples and permitted use |
|---|---|---|
| Verified | An American Express SEC filing, an official careers or benefit page, or a government record. | Executive and director pay, the pay ratio, equity plan counts, headcount, revenue, the Annual Incentive Award design and the UK gender pay gap. |
| Reported | A named third-party dataset with observable records, chiefly Levels.fyi band-labelled submissions and the H-1B aggregators. | The Band 30 to Band 45 United States and India anchors, the four-year colleague vesting pattern and the H-1B wage distributions. |
| Modeled | The New York anchor multiplied by a city calibration index and foreign exchange, inside a planning envelope. | Bands 20 to 28 and 50 to 90, and every city without a direct band-labelled observation. |
| Not publicly disclosed | No source in either research bundle supports a figure. | Recorded as such rather than estimated. |
Explicit “Not publicly disclosed” index
Known gaps and diligence before relying on a cell
- 1The two bundles use slightly different FX snapshots for the same 25 August 2026 date, for example 95.704432 against 95.4075 rupees to the dollar and 0.732402 against 0.733479 pounds. This report standardises on the first bundle's table because it is the only one that covers all thirteen currencies used here.
- 2The two bundles disagree on the FY2025 H-1B corpus. One reports 430 records at a $148,000 median and the other 778 applications at a $147,700 median from a different aggregator. Both are shown separately rather than averaged, because the entity filters and refresh dates differ.
- 3The bundles disagree on the United States Band 45 anchor. A product-management submission reads about $375,972 total while the technical sample reads about $258,000. This report uses the New York-indexed model median of $593,450, which sits above both because it includes a modelled equity component that neither raw submission carries.
- 4The second bundle omits Douglas E. Buckminster from its Summary Compensation Table extract and directs the reader to the proxy. This report uses the first bundle's complete five-row table, which reconciles to the disclosed totals.
- 5Bands 20, 25 and 28 have no band-labelled public observation in either bundle. Those three rows are the weakest in the report and are modelled from United States servicing postings alone.
- 6Bands 50, 60 and 70 are treated as distinct rungs for modelling. No public source distinguishes them, and the boundary between them is a convention rather than a finding.
- 7American Express discloses no geographic revenue split in either bundle, so no regional revenue panel appears in this report.
- 8Enterprise attrition is not disclosed anywhere, so no turnover metric appears alongside the headcount trend.
- 9City-level headcount is not published for any market, including Gurugram, which is identified as the largest international hub by campus floor area rather than by colleague count.
- 10No companywide salary freeze, salary cut, broad restructuring programme or 2026 hike percentage was located in the filings or newsroom reviewed for either bundle.
FX rates used — 1 USD equals, snapshot 2026-08-25
Single-date conversion layer for comparability; it ignores payroll-date FX, tax, purchasing power, benefits valuation and hedging. Compensation intelligence, not legal, tax, investment, immigration or employment advice.
Source register — 14 sources
| DEF 14A 2026 | American Express 2026 Definitive Proxy Statement · United States Securities and Exchange Commission · 2026-03-01. Executive and director compensation, the pay ratio, equity plan counts, the Annual Incentive Award and long-term incentive design and the 2026 target packages. |
| 10-K FY2025 | American Express Annual Report on Form 10-K for FY2025 · United States Securities and Exchange Commission · 2026-02-06. Headcount of 76,800 with the United States and international split, salaries and benefits expense, restructuring expense and business disclosures. |
| FY2025 results | American Express full-year and fourth-quarter 2025 results exhibit · United States Securities and Exchange Commission · 2026-01-30. Revenue net of interest expense of $72.229 billion, net income of $10.833 billion and FY2026 guidance. |
| Q2 2026 results | American Express second-quarter 2026 results exhibit · United States Securities and Exchange Commission · 2026-07-24. Q2 2026 net income of $3.1 billion, earnings per share of $4.53 and the raised full-year revenue growth guidance. |
| 2016 Plan | 2016 Incentive Compensation Plan, the 2020 restatement exhibit and the 2024 proxy approval · United States Securities and Exchange Commission · 2024-03-01. Plan approval history, eligible award types, administration and award authority. |
| Forms 4 | Section 16 filings for American Express insiders · United States Securities and Exchange Commission · 2026-08-18. Performance unit settlements, tax withholding, the Anna Marrs option exercise and open-market sales. |
| Careers pages | American Express location and benefit pages for New York, Gurgaon, Sydney, Brighton and Auckland plus Life at American Express · American Express Company · 2026-08-26. Country benefit categories, Amex Flex, colleague networks, learning programmes and the Gurgaon campus scale. |
| Levels.fyi | Levels.fyi American Express salary, software engineering and India location records · Levels.fyi · 2026-08-25. Band-labelled United States, India and United Kingdom anchors and the reported four-year colleague vesting pattern. |
| H-1B extracts | H1BData.info and H1BGrader American Express employer profiles · Third-party Department of Labor aggregators · 2026-08-26. FY2025 and FY2026 wage distributions, city medians, filing counts and certification rates by legal entity. |
| UK GPG 2024 | American Express Europe LLC gender pay gap report for reporting year 2024 · United Kingdom Government Equalities Office service · 2025-04-04. The 1.6 percent UK median hourly pay gap indicator. |
| Peer proxies | Visa, Mastercard, Synchrony, Capital One and PayPal proxy statements · United States Securities and Exchange Commission · 2026-04-27. Peer chief executive compensation and pay ratio comparison. |
| FX snapshot | Historical currency table for the United States dollar · XE.com · 2026-08-25. Every local currency conversion in this report. |
| AXP price | American Express historical market price reference · Nasdaq market data · 2026-08-25. The $337.58 reference share price used for grant-value and insider-trade illustrations. |
| Communities | Glassdoor, AmbitionBox, Fishbowl, Blind, Indeed and regional salary databases · Anonymous employee communities · 2026-08-26. Cross-checking the band hierarchy, review timing, Sydney title benchmarks and local salary ranges. |
Recent News & Workforce Trend
American Express spent 2026 changing how it pays its executives rather than how it pays its colleagues. The long-term incentive redesign and a 145 percent annual incentive multiplier are the two compensation events of the year, and no companywide colleague pay action was announced in either research bundle.
Headcount has grown for two consecutive years after a 2023 contraction, and salaries and employee benefits expense rose faster than headcount, from $8.067 billion in 2023 to $9.016 billion in 2025, a 10 percent increase in 2025 alone against 2.3 percent headcount growth. American Express publishes no city-level headcount, so the only geographic signal in the filings is the 25,900 United States and 50,900 international split at the 2025 close. Enterprise attrition is not disclosed.
Monique Herena sold at $337.41 for about $2.97 million, the most recent insider transaction in the research window.
First-half 2026 revenue reached about $38.5 billion and full-year revenue growth guidance was raised to 10 percent. Strong results support incentive affordability but are not a payout disclosure.
He received a $6.9 million performance unit grant in February 2026 for 2025 performance shortly before departing, and no 2026 target direct compensation was set for the role.
Nine Form 4 records fall between 1 and 19 February 2026, including a $9.60 million sale by Anna Marrs and an $8.35 million sale by Denise Pickett.
Headcount grew by about 1,700 against 75,100 in 2024, split 25,900 in the United States and 50,900 outside it, with salaries and benefits expense of $9.016 billion.
She sold 27,425 shares the same day at a weighted-average $350.01. Because the 2026 design removed options, this transaction pattern will not recur.
Stock options were removed from the executive programme, and the redesigned maximum rose to 150 percent of target shares on relative return on equity with a total shareholder return modifier.
Squeri acquired 123,033 shares and surrendered 62,466 for tax at $352.17; Le Caillec acquired 17,280 and surrendered 9,146. The 120 percent outcome was the prior programme's maximum.
Against a 150 percent maximum, with individual multipliers of 115 to 125 percent across the named executives. Squeri received $11,328,125 against a $6,250,000 target.
Record operating scale feeds the shareholder category of the executive scorecard, which is weighted 60 percent and split 50 percent revenue, 25 percent earnings per share and 25 percent return on equity.