Bojangles’ Inc. is raising Chief Executive Officer Clifton Rutledge’s base salary 18 percent to $600,000 in 2017, according to a regulatory filing Monday.

Bojangles’ awarded Rutledge $4.2 million in total compensation for his work in 2014. He received a $100,000 signing bonus and $3 million in stock options that year.

His total compensation fell to $966,000 in 2015, but his base salary increased to $511,000 from $442,000 the year before.

Rutledge is eligible to earn an annual cash incentive bonus equal to 100 percent of his 2017 annual base salary, up from the 75 percent he was eligible to receive the year before.

He owns $1.7 million worth of stock options that expire in 2024, according to the company’s most recent proxy statement.

Rutledge, 51, has served as CEO of Bojangles’ since January 2014.

Before coming to the Charlotte-based company in 2014, the father of three girls spent about 14 years working for Texas-based Whataburger. Before that he spent about a decade at frozen yogurt chain TCBY.

Jim Kibler served as CEO of Bojangles from September 2007 to January 2014.

Bojangles’, known for its hand-breaded bone-in chicken and buttermilk biscuits, held its initial public offering at $19 a share in May 2015.

The company hopes to capitalize on its popularity in the breakfast segment. The chain generated 38 percent of its sales before 11 a.m. in 2014, the company said in a securities filing.

The Southern fast food chain operates roughly 635 stores, primarily in the Southeast, with about two-thirds of its restaurants in the Carolinas.

In its IPO filing, Bojangles’ outlined a plan to increase the number of locations by 7 to 8 percent a year, mostly in markets where it’s already concentrated.

The news of Rutledge’s pay raise comes as the company expands in the mid-South region including Memphis and Jackson, Tennessee and Paducah, Kentucky. Last year, the chain entered the markets of Gainesville, Florida and Mobile, Alabama as well as the Lehigh Valley region of Pennsylvania, according to a company press release.

Bojangles’ generated earnings of 71 cents a share in 2015, up a cent from the year before and up 5 cents from 2013.

Bojangles’ stock price fell 50 cents to $20.15 Monday.