Most of the top 10 companies paid their chiefs more than the $14.5 million median at the top 100 companies, Equilar said. But four did not. Among these were ManpowerGroup, whose chief executive, Jonas Prising, received $9.1 million last year, and Terry Lundgren, Macy’s chief executive, who received $11.6 million.

Just being a director, of course, does not mean that you can have a direct impact on a company’s pay practices. That is the domain of the compensation committee, the board group that oversees the methodology used to determine top executives’ pay.

Women are not that common on these crucial committees. Even among the 10 most diverse boards, just under a third of the directors who are women — 14 of 46 — belong to compensation committees.

Still less likely, the analysis showed, is that a woman will serve as chairwoman of a board’s compensation committee. Women performed that function at just two of the 10 most diverse boards last year.

The chief executives at both of those companies — Accenture and AT&T — made more than the median pay at the top 100 companies analyzed by Equilar.

Marjorie Magner, a partner at Brysam Global Partners, a private equity firm, heads Accenture’s compensation committee and is its lead director. Pierre Nanterme, Accenture’s chief executive, received $15.8 million last year, or $1.3 million more than the median pay at the top 100 companies.

Ms. Magner declined to comment.

The other compensation committee chairwoman was Joyce Roché, former president and chief executive of Girls Inc., a nonprofit organization that tries to build confidence in girls. Under Ms. Roché’s stewardship at AT&T, Randall L. Stephenson, its chief executive, received $22.4 million. That’s almost $8 million more than the median pay for the 100 top companies in 2015.