Cameron Herold breaks down COO salaries using survey data from hundreds of second-in-command executives. A single national average is misleading because titles, company size, and location vary wildly. His own mid-size-company CEO made over $300,000, while a senior Sprint executive earned $2.4 million plus incentives.
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So what's the average salary in the United States for a coo? That's a great question. So we actually have a salary survey with a few hundred different seconding commands that put their compensation into a spreadsheet. Now here's where it gets complicated, but also very insightful. First off, is, is the COO the same in every company? Right. Is it really a coo or is the title difference? Right. Because you could have a COO in a small company or where really they're more of a director of operations with a big title and that person's making 140,000 a year. Really they're not a CEO, they're more like an operations manager or a director of operations with the wrong title. So if you are truly a CEO, right. When I was the chief operating officer for 1-800-got junk as an example, I left the company 16 years ago in 2007. But when I was the CEO, my compensation was well north of 300,000. So in today's dollars it's probably more like 450,000. That's a real compensation level for a real CEO of a mid sized company. Right. If you're the CEO for a major organization where I was coaching the CEO or the second in command at Sprint, which is the 82nd largest company in the United States, I think his salary was $2.4 million a year, plus long term incentive, plus bonuses. So Jamie Jones had a big compensation, but he was really a CEO of a big company. So is that what the average is? It's not really clear. Right. The, the, the, the real question is what should you be paying your CEO or your second in command? So this salary spreadsheet and you can actually get a link down in the comments, we'll share that with you, you can see what other CEOs are getting paid. The data that we pulled together shows the people's titles. It shows the size of the company with revenue and how many employees they've got. It also shows their salary, their bonuses and any long term incentive packages they have. It shows whether they're male or female and it also shows that the state that they live in. So as an example, if you're a COO living in California for the exact same company as a COO living, let's say in South Dakota, you're probably getting paid more in California than you are in South Dakota because it costs more to live in California than it does in South Dakota. So it's really not what's the pay for a COO in the United States? It's what should I be paying for my second in command in the state that I live in, for the roles and responsibilities that they have for the size of the organization that they've got? Those are the questions we need to be asking. So the data will be super helpful. And if you love this content, you're going to love all the content in my book, the Second in Command. And you'll love this content below. Check it out as well. Some advanced leadership lessons here for you too.
