The purpose of this research is to assess the elasticity of CEO compensation in the U.S. restaurant industry. Using a sample of 30 restaurant firms for the years 1993 through 2006, we find that a 1% increase in current year firm return yields an increase of approximately .43% for salary, bonus and stock options, .20% for salary and bonus and 2.74% for bonus and options. Mergers do not appear to impact CEO compensation significantly. Our findings are within the range found by many previous researchers.