Based on the data of China's A-share listed companies from 2009 to 2020，the impact mechanism of the external unfairness of executive compensation on cost stickiness is empirically analyzed and the moderating effect of the characteristics of top management team on the relationship between external salary unfairness and enterprise cost stickiness is also explained．The result indicates that the increase of the external unfairness of compensation will significantly aggravate cost stickiness．After considering TMT characteristics，it is found that TMT with less women, lower education level and higher tenure is more likely to aggravate the positive impact of the external unfairness in executive compensation on cost stickiness．Further, the mechanism test found that the external unfairness of executive compensation affects cost stickiness by aggravating managers' agency problem．