What Idaho’s top CEOs make — and how that compares with their employees’ pay
AI-generated summary reviewed by our newsroom.
- Idaho CEOs collectively made over $83 million across nine public firms in 2024.
- Micron led CEO pay at $30M with a 469-to-1 CEO-to-median worker ratio.
- Albertsons had the largest CEO-median pay gap; Idacorp had the highest median pay.
The CEOs of the nine Idaho-based companies whose shares trade on major stock exchanges collectively made over $83 million in 2024, records reviewed by the Idaho Statesman show.
Most publicly traded companies are required to disclose executive compensation in annual proxy statements provided to shareholders and filed online with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission for public viewing. The proxy statements are typically filed the following calendar year, so not all of the numbers for 2025 are available yet.
The companies must also disclose how much their CEOs are paid compared with their median employee — the worker closest to halfway between the highest- and lowest-paid, excluding the CEO — thanks to the Dodd-Frank banking regulation law.
In 2024, Micron CEO Sanjay Mehrotra had the highest compensation among the CEOs. Idacorp, the parent company of Idaho Power, had the highest-paid median employee. Albertsons had the largest disparity between what its CEO and median worker made.
The CEOs’ multimillion-dollar compensation packages typically include salary, bonuses, stocks, options and more. The nonsalary portions usually make up most of their pay and often rise or fall based on stock prices, performance-based awards and other factors, resulting in sometimes dramatic changes in total compensation from one year to the next.
Here’s how the top executives of Idaho’s publicly traded companies rank in order from highest to lowest compensation in 2024, according to their disclosures. Read through the list to see who has the lowest-paid median employee.
1. Sanjay Mehrotra
Micron
Total compensation: $30,060,126 Median employee pay: $64,042 Pay ratio: 469
Micron’s CEO-to-worker pay ratio in 2024 was second-highest among the nine companies.
The Boise-based memory chip manufacturer — which is listed on the Standard and Poor’s 500 index, meaning it’s one of the 500 largest publicly traded companies in the U.S. — had a CEO-to-worker pay ratio of 469-to-1, up from 463-to-1 in 2023.
The average pay ratio for companies listed on the S&P 500 index for 2024 was 285 to 1. That’s up from 268 to 1 the year before, according to the AFL-CIO, the largest federation of labor unions in the country.
Micron CEO Sanjay Mehrotra made nearly $5 million more in 2024 than the year before. Micron’s median worker made about $9,500 more. Mehrotra’s compensation included a $1.4 million salary, $23.7 million in stock awards and other performance-based earnings, according to the company’s proxy statement.
Mehrotra became CEO in 2017.
Micron trades on the Nasdaq Stock Exchange under the ticker MU. The company’s stock price has increased by nearly 300% in just the last year. Shares were trading at $373.05 by closing time Tuesday, up from $95.93 a year ago.
The company broke ground in January on its huge memory-chip manufacturing complex planned in upstate New York and is well under way on the $15 billion plant being constructed at its headquarters campus in Southeast Boise.
2. Vivek Sankaran
Albertsons
Total compensation: $15,240,511 Median employee pay: $32,057 Pay ratio: 475
Sankaran stepped down on May 1 after Albertsons’ planned merger with rival grocer Kroger fell apart. Sankaran led the Boise-based supermarket chain for six years. He was succeeded by Susan Morris, the company’s former chief operating officer.
Sankaran made $15.2 million in fiscal year 2024, up from $15.1 million the year before, according to the company’s proxy statement.
While Sankaran brought in millions, his median employee, which the proxy statement says is a full-time hourly worker, made $32,057. The year before, in 2023, the company’s median worker made $31,781.
Albertsons has over 5,000 employees in Idaho, making it the Gem State’s seventh-largest private employer, the Statesman reported. But it has over 280,000 employees nationwide, making it by far the biggest employer based in Idaho. The company was founded in 1939 with a single store on the same site now occupied by a newer Albertsons store at 16th and State streets near downtown Boise.
After its planned merger with Kroger was halted by a pair of judges in late 2024, the company announced that it was terminating the deal and suing Kroger for billions of dollars, accusing the Cincinnati-based grocery company of having “buyer’s remorse.”
Albertsons trades on the NYSE under the ticker ACI.
3. Sandeep Sahai
Clearwater Analytics
Total compensation: $11,123,831 Median employee pay: $84,713 Pay ratio: 131
Sahai was the highest-paid CEO of a publicly traded Idaho company in 2023, when his total compensation reached $32.3 million. But a decrease in stock awards and other compensation in 2024 led him to fall down the list, according to the company’s proxy statement. For both years, his base salary was $653,400.
Clearwater Analytics is an investment accounting, reporting and analytics software company headquartered in a nine-story building adjoining the Grove Plaza at 777 W. Main St. in Boise. Clients include Starbucks, Yahoo, Zions Bank, Facebook, Netflix and J.P. Morgan.
The company, founded by Doug Bates and brothers Dave and Michael Boren in 2004, went public in 2021. Sahai has been CEO since 2018.
The company announced in December that it agreed to be acquired by a group of private equity firms, led by Permira and Warburg Pincus, for $8.4 billion. Temasek, an investment company owned by the government of Singapore, is also part of the deal, and Francisco Partners, another investment firm, is supporting it, according to a news release.
Stockholders would receive $24.55 a share in cash. Then Clearwater Analytics would delist from the NYSE.
Clearwater Analytics trades under the ticker CWAN.
4. Nate Jorgensen
Boise Cascade
Total compensation: $7,509,149 Median employee pay: $65,533 Pay ratio: 115
Jorgensen made $7.5 million in 2024, down from $7.7 million a year earlier. He joined the Boise-based company in 2015 and became CEO in 2020.
Boise Cascade manufactures and distributes wood products like lumber and paper. It was formed in 1957 through the merging of Boise Payette Lumber Co. in Boise and Cascade Lumber Co. in Yakima. The original Boise Cascade Corp. broke up in 2004, and the surviving portion was privately held until it went public in 2013.
Boise Cascade is a Fortune 1000 company with $6.7 billion in annual sales in 2024, according to its website. The company is headquartered in the Boise Plaza building at 11th and Jefferson streets.
The company’s median employee compensation excludes its employees in Canada, because they account for less than 5% of its workforce, according to its proxy statement. As of December 2023, Boise Cascade had 7,340 employees, including 7,234 in the U.S. and 106 in Canada. The company trades on the NYSE under the ticker BCC.
5. Tom Werner
Lamb Weston
Total compensation: $7,037,026 Median employee pay: $59,742 Pay ratio: 118
Werner stepped down as CEO on Jan. 3, 2025, as the company faced pressure from an activist investor to change its leadership. His total compensation in 2024 was over $7 million, down from $20 million, because of a reduction in stock awards and incentive-based compensation, according to the company’s proxy statement.
Mike Smith, the company’s former chief operating officer, succeeded Werner.
Lamb Weston, based in Eagle, says it produces more french fries than anyone else in North America, supplying restaurants, grocery stores and fast-food chains, including McDonald’s. But the business had struggled because of weak restaurant traffic, a supply surplus and costs to open a new manufacturing plant in Argentina.
Like Micron, Lamb Weston is listed on the S&P 500 index. Its shares trade on the NYSE under the ticker LW.
The company’s stock price sank more than any other in the S&P 500 on Dec. 19, tumbling nearly 26% to $43.94 after company executives warned that earnings in fiscal year 2026 would likely come in lower than previously projected. It hasn’t fully recovered: Lamb Weston shares closed Tuesday at $50.58.
6. Lisa Grow
Idacorp
Total compensation: $6,704,645 Median employee pay: $177,404 Pay ratio: 38
Idacorp, the parent company of Idaho Power, its primary subsidiary, reported the highest median employee earnings among the companies in 2024, too.
The company’s median employee base wage was $121,632, which already topped all the others, but benefits included in the total compensation, like incentives, overtime, pensions and 401k matches, brought the total to more than $177,000, up slightly from about $175,000 the year before.
Publicly traded companies can include benefits in the total annual compensation of their median employee but are not required to.
Grow’s base salary was $1 million. Incentives, benefits and other awards brought her compensation to $6.7 million, down from $7.4 million the year before.
Grow, an engineer, rose through the ranks over her three decades at Idacorp and eventually succeeded former CEO Darrel Anderson in 2020.
Idaho Power, based in Boise, is the state’s largest public electric utility. It serves more than 630,000 customers in Idaho and a portion of eastern Oregon. Idacorp trades on the NYSE under the ticker IDA.
7. Brent Guerisoli
Pennant Group
Total compensation: $2,594,080 Median employee pay: $68,016 Pay ratio: 38
The Pennant Group, based in Eagle, is a little-known holding company of independently operated subsidiaries that provide health care services around the country. It was founded in 2019.
The subsidiaries include 89 home health and hospice agencies and 48 senior living communities across Idaho and 13 other states, according to the company’s website.
Guerisoli become CEO in 2022 after serving as president in 2021. He’s been with the company since 2012. His total compensation was $2.6 million, up from $1.9 million, according to the company’s proxy statement.
The company’s median employee pay got a significant boost to $68,016 in 2024, up from $31,970 a year earlier.
The Pennant Group trades on the Nasdaq under the ticker PNTG.
8. Rob Krcmarov
Hecla Mining
Total compensation: $1,941,213 Median employee pay: $106,647 Pay ratio: 18
Krcmarov became CEO on Nov. 7, 2024, succeeding interim CEO Catherine Boggs and prior CEO Phillips Baker Jr., the company’s longtime leader whose total compensation in 2023 totalled $6,013,471.
Krcmarov’s compensation for 2024 totaled $226,420, since he took on the position late in the year. The company annualized his salary in accordance with SEC rules to calculate its CEO pay ratio. Hecla Mining determined that, had Krcmarov worked the entire year, he would have been paid over $1.9 million.
Since the company’s median employee made $106,647 in 2024, its CEO-to-median employee pay ratio was 18 to 1, according to its proxy statement. That’s the lowest of the eight Idaho companies that reported ratios.
Hecla Mining, based in Coeur d’Alene, is the largest silver producer in the country. It has mines in Idaho, Alaska and Quebec, Canada, and is building another in Yukon, Canada.
The company trades on the NYSE under the ticker HL.
9. Laurel Sayer
Perpetua Resources
Total compensation: $1,042,534 Median employee pay: N/A Pay ratio: N/A
Sayer, the president and CEO for seven years, stepped down in March 2024, the company said in a news release. Jon Cherry, the former CEO of PolyMet Mining, succeeded her.
Sayer stayed on as a senior adviser until she retired in April 2024. That year, in 2024, her total compensation was $1,042,534, according to the company’s proxy statement. Cherry made $983,589.
Perpetua is exempt from the SEC’s pay ratio requirement since it is both an emerging growth company and a smaller reporting company, according to a spokesperson for the company.
The company is headquartered in Donnelly and has offices in Boise. It trades on the Nasdaq under the ticker PPTA.
This story was originally published February 4, 2026 at 4:00 AM.
