The 20 Most-Compensated U.S. Restaurant Executives of 2017
Skift Take
If you're an executive at McDonald's right now there's a chance that "I'm loving it" is the phrase that is resonating.
At our sister brand Skift Travel we've been looking at executive compensation this time of year for a while now.
Compensation is a good way to get a sense of how a brand is performing. And by "compensation" we mean all the pieces that go into it — cash, stock, benefits, perks, etc. — and what those things signal. While, for instance, Wynn Resorts' former CEO Steve Wynn walked away with the top compensation for 2017 in the hotel and gaming sector, it provided more a chance to seriously question the competence of the board rather than celebrate the performance of an executive and founder kicked to the curb for credible accusations of unbecoming behavior.
This year in the restaurant industry only saw one really eye-raising departure of an executive, the holiday exit by Papa John's founder and public face John Schnatter. The only smoke in this case was around the brand's poor performance in previous quarters, but the timing of the departure for a founder and CEO was incredibly odd.
