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It’s a good time to be a CEO. A new study by the AFL-CIO found the average corporate leader saw their compensation increase by $1.24 million last year. On average, the federation of unions says, CEOs at the nation’s largest companies made 285 times what the average worker did. A year ago, that ratio was 268:1.
“The median employee would have had to start working in 1740 to earn what the average CEO received in 2024,” the organization wrote in its 2025 Executive Paywatch study.
CEO pay at S&P 500 companies increased 7% in 2024 over the prior year, with the average S&P 500 leader earning $18.9 million, the highest amount on record. (The previous high was set in 2021, coming in at $18.3 million.) In the past decade, CEOs in the S&P 500 have seen their salaries go up by an average of $6.5 million. Workers last year saw an average 3% raise, the organization says.
Among S&P 500 companies, the largest disparity between CEO and median worker pay was at Starbucks. While the average worker took home $14,674, according to the study, CEO Brian Niccol received $97.8 million in total compensation. That works out to 6,666 times more than workers and comes as the coffee-shop employees seek to form a union.
Axon Enterprise CEO Patrick Smith topped the pay list overall, though, with the CEO of the Taser manufacturer receiving compensation of $164.5 million in 2024 – a ratio of 801:1.
The report highlighted the Trump tax cut package in its report, noting that the average CEO would receive a tax cut of nearly $490,000 due to the extension of Trump’s 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act. Workers will see their tax bill go down an average of $765.
Written by Chris Morris for Fortune as “Starbucks CEO Brian Niccol made 6,666 times more than the median employee at his coffee chain last year” and republished with permission.
