Compensation figures for top executives at publicly listed companies are freely available, yet coverage of this topic has been limited. This month’s Rapaport Intelligence Report departs from its usual focus on diamond supply and demand to investigate pay levels for CEOs across the jewelry sector.
The report brings together data on CEOs’ base salaries and bonuses at 23 public companies across North America, Europe, India, greater China and Australia over the five years from 2021 to 2025.
It also includes two US tax-exempt organizations: the US arm of the Gemological Institute of America (GIA), and the Natural Diamond Council (NDC), which recently rebranded as The Diamond Collective. While there are other nonprofits in the industry, such as charities, we chose those two because of their importance and clear business focus. These numbers only go up to 2024, since nonprofits have a long deadline to file their accounts.
Our report looks at entities with primary exposure to the diamond, jewelry and watch markets. We have excluded mining and luxury conglomerates that are equally or more involved in other sectors, such as Anglo American (85% owner of De Beers), Richemont (Cartier and Van Cleef & Arpels) and LVMH (Tiffany & Co. and Bulgari). Those companies publish their overall CEOs’ remuneration amounts but not those of their subsidiaries.
Certain trends are clear: Western retailers such as Signet Jewelers and Swatch Group pay the highest amounts, though the wider luxury downturn has hit the totals for some of these companies. Bosses in India generally receive less – reflecting the lower cost of living or the fact that many have large ownership stakes – but compensation at a number of companies has surged in recent years as the segment expands. Pure-play diamond companies have generally reduced their salary expenses, reflecting the market downturn.
However, the reality is messy, and trends are not always clear due to CEO transitions, one-off payouts, complexities around stock interests and currency conversions, and sometimes even executives forgoing their salary.
The overall picture is that CEO pay packages broadly track the state of the industry. Our report breaks this down, showing the data by company, executive, region and year.
As always, the Rapaport Intelligence Report also includes exclusive data on 0.30-, 0.50-, 1- and 3-carat diamonds.
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Image: David Polak.
