The Optimization of Adobe’s Compensation System
Research Article
Open Access
CC BY

The Optimization of Adobe’s Compensation System

Peiru Zou 1*
1 Shanghai Pinghe School
*Corresponding author: zoupeiru23@shphschool.com
Published on 11 July 2025
Volume Cover
AEMPS Vol.201
ISSN (Print): 2754-1177
ISSN (Online): 2754-1169
ISBN (Print): 978-1-80590-259-1
ISBN (Online): 978-1-80590-260-7
Download Cover

Abstract

While growing competition in the tech industry and increasing societal focus on pay equity and corporate social responsibility, Adobe faces new challenges. The executive compensation system is the key tool to attract, motivate, and retain top talent. This paper explores Adobe’s executive pay system to uncover its potential problems and offer practical suggestions for improvement. The goal is to help balance corporate goals and social expectations. The study uses literature review, case study, and comparative analysis to examine Adobe’s executive pay structure, how it works, and its strengths and weaknesses. The findings show that Adobe links executive pay closely to company performance, which helps ensure leaders take responsibility for revenue growth and shareholder returns. The heavy reliance of stock-based rewards boosts performance incentives, but it also leads to high volatility and fairness concerns. The current system focuses more on financial outcomes and less on broader employee satisfaction or social goals. The pay gap between top executives and regular employees remains wide, which is common in the tech industry, but may hurt team cohesion and public image as society grows more sensitive to fairness. In conclusion, Adobe’s pay system shows clear strengths in performance alignment but needs improvement in terms of stability, fairness, and balancing multiple goals. Based on the literature and case analysis, this paper suggests using more non-financial performance metrics, increasing pay transparency, and giving employees a stronger voice in pay-related matters to support more sustainable corporate governance.

Keywords:

Executive compensation, pay equity, corporate governance, performance alignment, sustainability.

View PDF
Zou,P. (2025). The Optimization of Adobe’s Compensation System. Advances in Economics, Management and Political Sciences,201,46-52.

References

[1]. Bughin, J., Seong, J., Manyika, J., Chui, M., & Joshi, R. (2018). Notes from the AI frontier: Modeling the impact of AI on the world economy. McKinsey Global Institute.

[2]. Frydman, C., & Jenter, D. (2010). CEO Compensation. Annual Review of Financial Economics, 2, 75–102.

[3]. Edmans, A. (2011). Does the stock market fully value intangibles? Employee satisfaction and equity prices. Journal of Financial Economics, 101(3), 621–640.

[4]. Adobe. (2025). Adobe Annual Report 2024. https: //www.adobe.com/cc-shared/assets/investor-relations/pdfs/adbe-2025-proxy.pdf

[5]. Adobe, Narayen, S., Durn, D., & Ruderfinn. (2024). Adobe reports record Q4 and fiscal 2024 revenue.https: //www.adobe.com/content/dam/cc/in/about-adobe/newsroom/pdfs/2025/Adobe%20%20Q4%20and%20FY24%20Earnings.pdf

[6]. Green, T. (2025, March 13). Adobe earnings: A new growth strategy. The Motley Fool. https: //www.fool.com/investing/2025/03/13/adobe-earnings-a-new-growth-strategy/

[7]. Lopez-de-Silanes, F., & Giannetti, M. (2024). Executive pay and shareholder value: Revisiting pay-for-performance in the digital era. Journal of Financial Economics, 152(2), 314–330.

[8]. Hasan, I., Manfredonia, S., & Leung, W. S. (2024). Compensation consultants and the peer benchmarking trap: Evidence from technology firms. Corporate Governance: An International Review, 32(1), 13–30.

[9]. Cabezon, F. (2020). One-size-fits-all? Trends in U.S. executive compensation policies. SSRN Electronic Journal.

[10]. Siwendu, T. O., & Ambe, C. M. (2022). Transparency in executive remuneration disclosures: A review of determinants and outcomes. Journal of Risk and Financial Management, 15(10), 457.

[11]. Alqatan, A., & Arslan, M. (2023). The impact of CEO–employee pay ratio on shareholders' perceptions: Evidence from say-on-pay votes. Journal of Corporate Finance, 78, 102368.

[12]. Yahaya, O. A. (2024). ESG performance and executive compensation: Evidence from S&P 500 firms. Sustainability, 16(3), 1124.

[13]. Breheny, B. V., Yaffe, J. M., & Kim, C. S. (2021). Say-on-pay trends and best disclosure practices. Harvard Law School Forum on Corporate Governance. https: //corpgov.law.harvard.edu/

References

[1]. Bughin, J., Seong, J., Manyika, J., Chui, M., & Joshi, R. (2018). Notes from the AI frontier: Modeling the impact of AI on the world economy. McKinsey Global Institute.

[2]. Frydman, C., & Jenter, D. (2010). CEO Compensation. Annual Review of Financial Economics, 2, 75–102.

[3]. Edmans, A. (2011). Does the stock market fully value intangibles? Employee satisfaction and equity prices. Journal of Financial Economics, 101(3), 621–640.

[4]. Adobe. (2025). Adobe Annual Report 2024. https: //www.adobe.com/cc-shared/assets/investor-relations/pdfs/adbe-2025-proxy.pdf

[5]. Adobe, Narayen, S., Durn, D., & Ruderfinn. (2024). Adobe reports record Q4 and fiscal 2024 revenue.https: //www.adobe.com/content/dam/cc/in/about-adobe/newsroom/pdfs/2025/Adobe%20%20Q4%20and%20FY24%20Earnings.pdf

[6]. Green, T. (2025, March 13). Adobe earnings: A new growth strategy. The Motley Fool. https: //www.fool.com/investing/2025/03/13/adobe-earnings-a-new-growth-strategy/

[7]. Lopez-de-Silanes, F., & Giannetti, M. (2024). Executive pay and shareholder value: Revisiting pay-for-performance in the digital era. Journal of Financial Economics, 152(2), 314–330.

[8]. Hasan, I., Manfredonia, S., & Leung, W. S. (2024). Compensation consultants and the peer benchmarking trap: Evidence from technology firms. Corporate Governance: An International Review, 32(1), 13–30.

[9]. Cabezon, F. (2020). One-size-fits-all? Trends in U.S. executive compensation policies. SSRN Electronic Journal.

[10]. Siwendu, T. O., & Ambe, C. M. (2022). Transparency in executive remuneration disclosures: A review of determinants and outcomes. Journal of Risk and Financial Management, 15(10), 457.

[11]. Alqatan, A., & Arslan, M. (2023). The impact of CEO–employee pay ratio on shareholders' perceptions: Evidence from say-on-pay votes. Journal of Corporate Finance, 78, 102368.

[12]. Yahaya, O. A. (2024). ESG performance and executive compensation: Evidence from S&P 500 firms. Sustainability, 16(3), 1124.

[13]. Breheny, B. V., Yaffe, J. M., & Kim, C. S. (2021). Say-on-pay trends and best disclosure practices. Harvard Law School Forum on Corporate Governance. https: //corpgov.law.harvard.edu/

Cite this article

Zou,P. (2025). The Optimization of Adobe’s Compensation System. Advances in Economics, Management and Political Sciences,201,46-52.

Data availability

The datasets used and/or analyzed during the current study will be available from the authors upon reasonable request.

About volume

Volume title: Proceedings of ICEMGD 2025 Symposium: Digital Transformation in Global Human Resource Management

ISBN: 978-1-80590-259-1(Print) / 978-1-80590-260-7(Online)
Editor: Florian Marcel Nuţă Nuţă, An Nguyen
Conference website: https://www.icemgd.org/committee.html
Conference date: 26 September 2025
Series: Advances in Economics, Management and Political Sciences
Volume number: Vol.201
ISSN: 2754-1169(Print) / 2754-1177(Online)

© 2024 by the author(s). Licensee EWA Publishing, Oxford, UK. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license. Authors who publish this series agree to the following terms:

1. Authors retain copyright and grant the series right of first publication with the work simultaneously licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution License that allows others to share the work with an acknowledgment of the work's authorship and initial publication in this series.

2. Authors are able to enter into separate, additional contractual arrangements for the non-exclusive distribution of the series's published version of the work (e.g., post it to an institutional repository or publish it in a book), with an acknowledgment of its initial publication in this series.

3. Authors are permitted and encouraged to post their work online (e.g., in institutional repositories or on their website) prior to and during the submission process, as it can lead to productive exchanges, as well as earlier and greater citation of published work (See Open access policy for details).

For authors
For editors
For reviewers

Cookies are used by this site.
Copyright © 2024 EWA Publishing, its licensors, and contributors. All rights reserved, including text and data mining, AI training, and similar technologies.