Rising electricity rates are prompting state officials to take a closer look at the multimillion-dollar salaries of utility executives. But there’s only so much legislators can do to curb executives’ pay.
In recent years, states from Maryland to Minnesota have explored ways to limit the compensation of utility CEOs, with mixed results. One driver of those efforts is growing voter frustration with rising power prices, as millions of Americans struggle to pay their electric bills and face utility shutoffs when they can’t.
“There’s no way to reconcile [utility CEO compensation] with the quality of service that customers are receiving and the affordability of service that they’re receiving,” said Jonathan Kim, whose advocacy organization, the Energy and Policy Institute, has tracked utility CEO pay since 2017.
Maryland’s Legislature this year passed a measure that caps how much ratepayers can be charged to pay utility employees’ salaries. Utilities still can pay executives as much as they want, but the law requires excess funding to come from corporate profits or shareholders, not captive customers.
A similar bill was introduced last year in Minnesota, but failed to gain traction. In New York, Gov. Kathy Hochul (D) proposed a measure that would require utility CEOs to publicly disclose salaries compared to the average workers’ pay, among other efforts to keep costs in check. In Colorado, regulators blocked utilities from charging customers for certain corporate costs, including salaries in some instances. Connecticut, New Hampshire and Maine have passed similar measures.
The state efforts come as the spotlight shines brighter on utilities and their CEOs. One reason: Last year was a banner year for utility executives, according to a new report from the Energy and Policy Institute, which scrutinizes fossil-fuel and monopoly utility interests.
Florida-based NextEra Energy CEO John Ketchum raked in $24.2 million last year, the report found. Georgia-based Southern Co. CEO Chris Womack earned $28.2 million. And at the top of the pile sat Ohio-based American Electric Power CEO Bill Fehrman, who made $36.6 million.
Scott Blake, a spokesperson for AEP, said Fehrman’s compensation rate is set by an independent, performance-based process designed to retain leadership and meet the utility’s and its customers’ long-term interests. He also said a significant portion of the $36.6 million is contingent on Fehrman meeting five-year performance targets.
“If AEP’s objectives are not achieved, the value of the CEO’s compensation would be substantially less,” Blake wrote in an email.
Southern spokesperson Michael Quirk said in an email that the utility’s performance-based compensation program “is directly tied to what matters most to our business — delivering clean, safe, reliable and affordable energy while running our business efficiently and keeping costs down.”
NextEra Energy did not respond to a Wednesday request for comment.
Customers in those service territories, meanwhile, have struggled to keep pace with rising bills — and many have experienced utility disconnections.
Since 2021, electricity costs across the country have increased 30 percent, according to an analysis by the nonprofit PowerLines, which advocates for consumers. The organization’s polling last year found that 60 percent of U.S. residents say their electric and gas utility bills are adding to their financial stress.
Household utility debt has reached “crisis levels,” according to a February report from the National Energy Assistance Directors Association. The report found that more than 21 million U.S. households are behind on their energy bills, with low-income households spending an average of almost 9 percent of their income on energy, which is nearly three times the average of other households.
In 2024, utilities shut off power to customers across the country 13.4 million times, according to the nation’s first state-by-state analysis released last week. That’s far more shutoffs than consumer advocates had anticipated, highlighting the scope of the energy affordability crisis.
And there are little signs the trend is abating.
Georgia Power sent more than 5 million disconnection notices in 2025, ultimately shutting off customers’ power over 300,000 times, according to Georgia Public Service Commission records identified by the Energy and Policy Institute. In Ohio, AEP sent 2 million final notices between June 2024 and May 2025, cutting power 173,000 times. Customers in that state carried a combined past-due balance of $722 million, Ohio Public Utilities Commission filings show.
