Economics 4 Oct 2026

The average CEO now earns 312x the median worker

The CEO-to-median-worker pay ratio rose from 285-to-1 to 312-to-1.

The average S&P 500 CEO earned $22.8M in 2025, up from $18.9M in 2024 (excluding Elon Musk's outlier Tesla package). A neutral look at how the gap moved in a single year.

• Average CEO pay: $22.8M (2025) vs $18.9M (2024)
• Pay ratio: 312-to-1 (2025) vs 285-to-1 (2024)