CEO pay hits record high in 2025 as worker wage gap widens, report finds

Compensation for chief executives at the largest publicly traded companies in the United States reached a record level in 2025, further widening the gap between corporate leaders and ordinary workers, according to a new report from the American Federation of Labour and Congress of Industrial Organisations (AFL-CIO).

The federation's latest Paywatch report found that average compensation for S&P 500 chief executives rose to $22.8 million in 2025, marking a 21% increase from the previous year.

The figure excludes Tesla and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk's controversial compensation package, valued at $158.3 billion.

When Musk's compensation is included, average CEO pay among S&P 500 companies rises dramatically to $340.1 million, representing an increase of nearly 1,700% from 2024.

Fred Redmond, secretary-treasurer of the AFL-CIO, described the latest figures as evidence that executive compensation has reached a "shameful" level.

According to the report, Musk remained the highest-paid executive in 2025, followed by Welltower CEO Shankh Mitra, whose compensation package reached $821 million.

Other top-paid executives included Veeva Systems CEO Peter Gassner at $172 million, Blackstone CEO Stephen Schwarzman at $125 million, Goldman Sachs CEO David Solomon at $118 million, Palo Alto Networks CEO Nikesh Arora at $99.7 million, 

Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella at $96.4 million, Citigroup CEO Jane Fraser at $95.7 million, Wells Fargo CEO Charles Scharf at $94.5 million and Intel CEO Lip-Bu Tan at $92.9 million.

The report also highlighted a growing disparity between executive compensation and worker earnings.

According to the AFL-CIO, S&P 500 chief executives earned 312 times more than the median US worker in 2025, up from 285 times in 2024.

The gap was even more pronounced at Tesla, where Musk's total compensation was equivalent to more than 2.5 million times the annual pay of the company's median employee.

The report also drew attention to income trends beyond the corporate sector, noting that US President Donald Trump received $2.2 billion in compensation in 2025, an increase of nearly 254% from the previous year.

According to AFL-CIO calculations, a median US worker would need more than 43,000 years to earn an equivalent amount.

The labour federation warned that executive pay growth has coincided with worsening financial pressures for many workers.

It noted that workers' share of national income has fallen to its lowest level since the Second World War, forcing many households to rely on government assistance programmes to meet basic needs.

The report found that 16% of adults were unable to pay all their bills in full, while 26% postponed medical treatment because of costs. Another 37% reported that they lacked sufficient savings to cover a $400 emergency expense, while nearly a quarter of renters had fallen behind on rent payments during the previous year.

Redmond said the findings underscored the growing economic challenges facing workers across the country.

He argued that strengthening collective bargaining and expanding union representation would be essential to ensuring employees receive a fairer share of the wealth they help create.

The findings are likely to intensify the debate over executive compensation, wage inequality and the role of businesses in addressing growing income disparities in the United States.