Report: Musk's $158 Billion Pay Surpasses All S&P 500 CEOs Combined
The union federation said Musk’s $158 billion Tesla award lifted average S&P 500 CEO pay to $22.8 million and the pay ratio to 5,387-to-1.
- On Thursday, the American Federation of Labor and Congress of Industrial Organizations reported that S&P 500 CEO compensation surged 21% to $22.8 million in 2025, excluding Tesla CEO Elon Musk.
- Musk's compensation package, potentially worth $1 trillion, now serves as a 'reference' for other corporate boards, driving mega-pay plans across the S&P 500, labor officials said.
- Including the Tesla CEO's deal, average S&P 500 CEO compensation topped $340 million, while the CEO-to-worker pay ratio reached 5,387 to 1, according to the AFL-CIO's Paywatch study.
- AFL-CIO Secretary-Treasurer Fred Redmond said union members feel "pissed off over what's happening to them," highlighting rising inequality concerns among workers.
- While advisory "say on pay" votes receive 90.6% support, consulting firm Semler Brossy found that special one-off awards remain a "hot-button issue" facing greater shareholder scrutiny.
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35 Articles
Paywatch: CEO-worker pay gap hits record
WASHINGTON—The gap between median CEO pay and median U.S. worker pay grew to a record 312-1 last year, the AFL-CIO’s annual Paywatch study shows. But add in the $158 billion Tesla paid its CEO, Elon Musk, and that ratio becomes 17-1/4 times as large, at 5,387-1. Think that figure is huge? Paywatch calculates the ratio […]
Top 10 richest CEOs in 2025: How Elon Musk and nine other corporate chiefs turned executive pay into fortunes
In 2025, S&P 500 CEOs earned an average of $22.8 million, with Elon Musk’s $158 billion payday highlighting the growing pay gap between top executives and average American workers.
Elon Musk’s $158 billion Tesla pay was 2.5 million times his workers’ salary last year—it's ‘unlike anything we have seen before,’ exec pay watch says
Elon Musk earned $158.3 billion in compensation last year, receiving the median Tesla worker's pay in just 4.23 seconds.
AFL-CIO Report Shows Top CEOs Made 312 Times Workers’ Pay in 2025
New research shows S&P 500 CEOs received $22.8 million on average in 2025, a 21% increase from the previous year, while working people struggle to make ends meet. (Washington, D.C.)—S&P 500 CEOs took home an average pay of $22.8 million in 2025 and made 312 times the wage of the median U.S. worker, up from 285 times in 2024, the AFL-CIO’s 2026 Executive Paywatch report showed. While working Americans are struggling over every bill, every purcha…
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