Median pay for CEOs rose nearly 6% in 2025, but some compensation
packages were eye-popping
[May 28, 2026]
NEW YORK (AP) — The typical CEO compensation package rose nearly 6% in
2025 to $17.7 million, as company boards rewarded their top executives
for bigger profits and higher stock prices, and gave them incentives to
stick around and make even more money for shareholders.
The median employee at companies in the S&P 500 earned $89,744,
reflecting a 4.7% increase year over year. While that gain outpaced the
rate of inflation in 2025, many workers were still feeling pinched by
the accumulation of higher prices over the past few years and had to cut
corners to make ends meet and run up credit card debt to pay for
everyday necessities.
The Associated Press’ CEO compensation survey, which uses data analyzed
for The AP by Equilar, included pay data for 337 executives at S&P 500
companies who have served at least two full consecutive fiscal years at
their companies, which filed proxy statements between Jan. 1 and April
30.
Here's a look at some highlights from the survey.
The pay gap
At half the companies in AP’s survey it would take the worker at the
middle of the company’s pay scale 200 years to make what the CEO did in
one, up from 192 years in last year's survey. Companies have been
required to disclose this so-called pay ratio since 2018.
While the biggest gaps occur at companies where the CEO received
compensation loaded with one-time awards of stock, the pay ratio also
tends to be highest at companies in industries where wages are typically
low. For instance, at Coca-Cola, its CEO earned nearly 1,739 times the
median pay of $17,947 for its workers. The CEO at the retailer TJX Cos.
makes about 1,774 times what a worker making the company’s median pay
does.
Sarah Anderson, who directs the Global Economy Project at the
progressive Institute for Policy Studies, noted in an email that there
are ballot initiative campaigns in San Francisco and Los Angeles to
raise taxes on companies with sizable gaps between CEO and worker pay.
“At a time when working families are struggling with rising costs, it’s
obscene to see CEO pay continuing to skyrocket,” Anderson wrote.
Overall, wages and benefits netted by private-sector workers in the U.S.
rose 3.4% through 2025, according to the Labor Department. The average
worker in the U.S. makes $67,000 a year. That figure rises to $96,000
when benefits such as health care and other insurance are included.
The nature of CEO pay
While many people may think of a pay package as consisting of salary,
bonus and some perks, those components make up only a small percentage
of pay for the modern CEO.
Many companies have heeded calls from shareholders to tie CEO
compensation more closely to performance. As a result, a large
proportion of pay packages consist of stock awards, which the CEO often
can’t cash in for years, if at all, unless the company meets certain
targets, typically a higher stock price or market value or improved
operating profits. And if the CEO delivers on those metrics, companies
often give them one-time rewards as incentives to stay on and not look
for a bigger payday elsewhere.
Shareholders can weigh in on a CEO's pay package through “say on pay”
votes at a company's annual meeting. But the votes are non-binding and
most pay plans pass with overwhelming support. The average “yes” vote at
companies in this year's survey was around 90%.
Big rewards, lofty goals
As CEO pay has grown significantly over the past few decades, criticism
of the lofty payouts has largely come from worker advocates and certain
members of Congress.
Elon Musk's pay package is so extraordinary that even the pope weighed
in.
Musk, the CEO of Tesla, received compensation valued at $132.3 billion,
all in the form of stock awards. To actually get the shares, Musk must
meet ambitious targets over the next 10 years for the company's market
value and Tesla's electric vehicles, as well as his futuristic goals of
developing a fleet of robotaxis and an army of humanoid robots.
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Goldman Sachs CEO David Solomon is interviewed on the floor of the
New York Stock Exchange in New York, Wednesday, July 16, 2025. (AP
Photo/Seth Wenig, File)
 Tesla did not immediately respond to
a request for comment.
Shankh Mitra of Welltower received the second-largest compensation
package in the survey at $821.1 million, the bulk of it in stock
awards. Since October 2020, when he became CEO of the healthcare
real estate investment trust, and October 2025, Welltower's stock
price tripled. Mitra can only receive the full compensation, beyond
a $110,000 annual salary, after a 10-year period.
CEO Hock Tan's pay package at Broadcom, valued at $205.3 million,
covers the years 2028-2030 — companies assign a value at the time
the package is awarded — and is tied to Tan's ability to greatly
increase the revenue Broadcom generates from artificial
intelligence, making it one of the few companies at this time to use
AI as a benchmark in its compensation plans.
“Use of AI considerations or metrics in incentive plans has not yet
taken hold as a majority practice,” said Kelly Malafis, founding
partner at Compensation Advisory Partners, in an email, although she
expects that could change going forward.
David Zaslav was at the center of a takeover battle that ended with
him selling Warner Bros. to Paramount Skydance for $31 a share, up
from $12.54 before reports of Paramount’s interest in a deal came
out. For negotiating the deal at a premium and also exceeding
certain financial and strategic goals, Warner gave Zaslav a pay
package valued at $165 million, fourth largest in the survey. Since
becoming CEO in 2007, Zaslav's compensation has totaled $1.1
billion, according to Equilar.
Big payouts for bankers
CEOs of three the nation's biggest banks got rewarded for yearslong
efforts to retool their companies and revive a stagnant stock price.
Goldman Sachs’ David Solomon's pay package totaled almost $119
million — including stock valued at $80 million he can receive after
five years. Goldman's board pointed to the 57% gain in the company's
shares, as well as a hefty increase in its earnings per share.
Solomon also sold off the company's Apple Card portfolio after an
unsuccessful effort to expand Goldman's consumer-focused business.
Jane Fraser of Citigroup received a pay package valued at $95.8
million — tops among the 27 women CEOs in this year's survey and the
highest-ever for a woman CEO in the survey's history. Fraser
received a one-time award valued at $25 million in restricted stock
and options after being elected Citi's chairman. She also got a
one-time award for overseeing a wholesale reorganization of Citi
into a leaner company, including laying off thousands of workers.
Overall, the median compensation for women CEOs in the survey fell
2.6% to $18.1 million, compared to a 6.4% increase for their male
counterparts to $17.7 billion.
Wells Fargo gave CEO Charles Scharf a pay package worth $94.5
million after his yearslong effort to lead the bank back from a
scandal involving fake bank accounts that landed Wells under federal
supervision. And new scandals emerged along the way. The Federal
Reserve finally let Wells leave the penalty box last year.
Other notables
In his last year as CEO of the conglomerate Berkshire Hathaway,
Warren Buffett received compensation worth $389,488 — down 4% from
the year prior.
Meta Platforms CEO Mark Zuckerberg's compensation was valued at
$25.1 million and almost all of it involved costs for the company to
provide security for him and his family, as well as the use of
corporate aircraft.
Jensen Huang of Nvidia, the most valuable publicly traded company,
got a pay package valued at $36.3 million. He didn't make the AP
survey because Nvidia filed its proxy after April 30.
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