🌅 The CEO Pay Ratio Has Surged Since the ‘90s

SOURCE

The Associated Press & Equilar

WHAT TO KNOW

• A new report from The Associated Press and compensation research firm Equilar shows the median total compensation for S&P 500 CEOs reached $17.1 million in 2024, up 9.7% from 2023. At the same time, the median employee at S&P 500 companies earned $85,419, up just 1.7% from the year prior, pushing the CEO-to-worker pay ratio to 192:1 in 2024 (up from 186:1 in 2023).

WHY IT MATTERS

• Throughout the 1960s and 1970s, the pay ratio at the 350 largest U.S. companies hovered around just 20:1. It then climbed from 31:1 in 1978 to 61:1 less than a decade later in 1989. The ratio nearly doubled again to 118:1 just six years after that in 1995, before surging to an eye-watering 384:1 in 2000. It topped out at 405:1 in 2021 and reached 290:1 in 2023 (the latest available data).

CONNECT THE DOTS

• The Equilar/AP report found CEOs in the communications services sector, which includes telecommunications, media, and entertainment companies, had the highest median compensation in 2024 at $25.2 million. The sector includes Warner Bros. Discovery, led by CEO David Zazlav, who, despite shareholders voting against it, took home $52 million for his work in 2024 (he’s also reportedly splitting the company in two in 2026).