Highest-paid CEOs in America
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Highest-paid CEOs in America
Tim Cook attends ‘Ted Lasso’ Season 3 premiere.
Among the most hotly contested debates in America is what to make of the vast discrepancy between the salaries of the country’s top-earning CEOs and the average workers at their companies.
CEO compensation rose nearly 1,045% between 1978 and 2022, according to a report from the Economic Policy Institute released in September 2023. Their findings showed that CEOs made 344 times as much as a typical worker in 2022, a massive spike from the 21-1 ratio in 1965. Amid the United Auto Workers strike in the fall of 2023, for example, NPR reported that General Motors CEO Mary Barra’s 2022 salary was 362 times that of the median GM employee.
That ratio widens even further when looking at companies with lower median wages. In an in-depth analysis of the 100 S&P 500 corporations with the lowest median worker pay levels in 2022, the Institute for Policy Studies found that the average CEO-worker pay gap was 603-to-1.
To see which CEOs make the most money in the U.S., Stacker analyzed data from the AFL-CIO to determine the 20 highest-paid CEOs nationwide. All pay data is for 2022 unless otherwise noted. Any CEOs who did not still hold their position as of May 2024 were excluded.
You’ll notice some of the biggest names in business, like Tesla CEO Elon Musk (who’s currently in a legal battle regarding his $56 billion pay package) and Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg (whose salary is technically $1 per year), are not on the list. But who did make the cut? Read on to see how much the chief executives of top companies made.
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#20. Richard Handler (Jefferies Financial Group Inc.)
Sign on Jefferies Group headquarters in Manhattan.
– CEO pay: $56,897,424
– Median worker pay: $235,113
– CEO to worker pay ratio: 242:1
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#19. Robert Antokol (Playtika Holding Corp.)
Playtika logo on phone.
– CEO pay: $57,264,194
– Median worker pay: $70,522
– CEO to worker pay ratio: 812:1
T. Schneider // Shutterstock
#18. David Epstein (Seagen Inc.)
Phone with Seagen Inc. logo on screen.
– CEO pay: $57,460,546
– Median worker pay: $226,223
– CEO to worker pay ratio: 254:1
Ying Tang/NurPhoto // Getty Images
#17. Hock Tan (Broadcom Inc.)
Hock Tan speaking onstage.
– CEO pay: $60,606,971
– Median worker pay: $179,311
– CEO to worker pay ratio: 338:1
Jerod Harris // Getty Images
#16. Thomas Shannon (Bowlero Corp.)
Tom Shannon attends event.
– CEO pay: $67,566,882
– Median worker pay: $61,931
– CEO to worker pay ratio: 1,091:1
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#15. Peter Anevski (Progyny Inc.)
Peter Anevski attends event at Empire State Building.
– CEO pay: $68,580,072
– Median worker pay: $105,346
– CEO to worker pay ratio: 651:1
Alex Burstow/R&A/R&A // Getty Images
#14. Peter Zaffino (American International Group Inc.)
Peter Zaffino sitting at a table with a microphone at a press conference.
– CEO pay: $75,314,199
– Median worker pay: $84,244
– CEO to worker pay ratio: 894:1
Kena Betancur // Getty Images
#13. Eric Yuan (Zoom Video Communications Inc.)
Eric Yuan speaks before the Nasdaq opening bell ceremony.
– CEO pay: $75,959,683 (2023)
– Median worker pay: $217,028
– CEO to worker pay ratio: 350:1
JP Yim/Getty Images for The Asian American Foundation
#12. Joseph Bae (KKR & Co. Inc.)
Joseph Bae speaks onstage during the TAAF Heritage Month Awards Dinner.
– CEO pay: $79,999,836
– Median worker pay: $227,272
– CEO to worker pay ratio: 352:1
Roy Rochlin // Getty Images for Youtube
#11. Allan Thygesen (Docusign Inc.)
Allan Thygesen attends event.
– CEO pay: $85,035,380 (2023)
– Median worker pay: $196,387
– CEO to worker pay ratio: 433:1
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Taylor Hill // Getty Images
#10. Austin Russell (Luminar Technologies Inc.)
Austin Russell attends the 2023 Forbes 30 Under 30 Summit.
– CEO pay: $93,915,469
– Median worker pay: $211,999
– CEO to worker pay ratio: 443:1
rafapress // Shutterstock
#9. Tomer Weingarten (Sentinelone Inc.)
SentinelOne logo on phone.
– CEO pay: $95,395,534
– Median worker pay: $61,905
– CEO to worker pay ratio: 1,541:1
Justin Sullivan // Getty Images
#8. Tim Cook (Apple Inc.)
Tim Cook delivers remarks at the start of the Apple Worldwide Developers Conference.
– CEO pay: $99,420,097
– Median worker pay: $84,469
– CEO to worker pay ratio: 1,177:1
Noah Graham // Getty Images for Eat. Learn. Play.
#7. Aneel Bhusri (Workday Inc.)
Aneel Bhusri speaks on stage during The Workday Charity Classic.
– CEO pay: $102,685,309 (2023)
– Median worker pay: $233,907
– CEO to worker pay ratio: 439:1
DANIEL CONSTANTE // Shutterstock
#6. Bill Ready (Pinterest Inc.)
Pinterest logo on phone.
– CEO pay: $122,651,735
– Median worker pay: $122,775
– CEO to worker pay ratio: 999:1
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Taylor Hill // Getty Images
#5. Douglas Ingram (Sarepta Therapeutics Inc.)
Douglas Ingram attends the 2023 Forbes Healthcare Summit.
– CEO pay: $124,938,694
– Median worker pay: $252,912
– CEO to worker pay ratio: 494:1
Kevin Dietsch // Getty Images
#4. Michael Rapino (Live Nation Entertainment Inc.)
Michael Rapino talks to members of the media.
– CEO pay: $139,005,565
– Median worker pay: $25,675
– CEO to worker pay ratio: 5,414:1
David Cannon // Getty Images
#3. Nikesh Arora (Palo Alto Networks Inc.)
Nikesh Arora at The Alfred Dunhill Links Championship.
– CEO pay: $151,425,203 (2023)
– Median worker pay: $206,021
– CEO to worker pay ratio: 735:1
Jerod Harris // Getty Images for Vox Media
#2. Sundar Pichai (Alphabet Inc.)
Sundar Pichai speaks at event.
– CEO pay: $225,985,145
– Median worker pay: $279,685
– CEO to worker pay ratio: 808:1
Roy Rochlin // Getty Images
#1. Stephen Schwarzman (Blackstone Inc.)
Stephen Schwarzman as he visits “Maria Bartiromo’s Wall Street” at Fox Business Network Studios.
– CEO pay: $253,122,146
– Median worker pay: $237,006
– CEO to worker pay ratio: 1,068:1
Data reporting by Luke Hicks. Additional writing by Jaimie Etkin.
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