Corporate America’s biggest bosses did not just get a raise in 2025. Some walked away with fortunes that would take an ordinary American worker thousands, and in one case millions, of years to earn.
The AFL-CIO’s 2026 Executive Paywatch report found that CEOs of S&P 500 companies received an average compensation of $22.8 million in 2025, 21% more than the previous year. That put the average CEO’s pay at 312 times that of the median US worker, up from 285 times in 2024. However, the average tells only part of the story. At the very top, CEO compensation entered another league altogether.
Elon Musk’s $158 billion payday towers over the rest
No CEO came close to Tesla chief Elon Musk. His 2025 compensation package was valued at a staggering $158.36 billion, a figure so large that the AFL-CIO excluded it from its calculation of average S&P 500 CEO pay to prevent it from distorting the overall picture.
Musk’s package alone was equivalent to more than 2.5 million times the median Tesla worker’s pay. It also helped make him a trillionaire this year.
The distance between Musk and the rest of the corporate elite is striking. The second name on the list, Welltower CEO Shankh Mitra, received about $821.1 million, enormous by any conventional measure, but barely a fraction of Musk’s haul.
Shankh Mitra crossed the $800 million mark
Welltower CEO Shankh Mitra emerged as the second-highest-paid chief executive on the list, with compensation of approximately $821.1 million in 2025. Opendoor Technologies CEO Kaz Nejatian ranked third, taking home about $741.1 million in 2025.
His compensation is more than 32 times the average $22.8 million earned by an S&P 500 CEO. It also demonstrates how far the highest-paid executives sit above even the already elevated compensation of the corporate elite.
Niraj Shah joined the nine-figure club
Wayfair CEO Niraj Shah received roughly $280.8 million in 2025, placing him fourth among the CEOs highlighted in the data. Summit Therapeutics CEO Mahkam Zanganeh took home approximately $246 million in 2025.
At this level, executive compensation is no longer simply about earning a multiple of an employee’s annual salary. A single year’s pay can reach a level that would be unimaginable for workers whose wages rise incrementally, if at all.
Peter Gassner’s $172 million haul
Veeva Systems CEO Peter Gassner received about $172.4 million, putting him sixth on the list. Roivant Sciences CEO Matthew Gline received approximately $163.3 million, according to the data, placing him seventh.
The numbers come against a backdrop of growing concern over the distribution of income in the US. The AFL-CIO report said workers’ share of national income fell to its lowest level since World War II.
Bipul Sinha took home $140 million
Rubrik CEO Bipul Sinha received around $140 million in 2025, making him the eighth-highest-paid CEO in the list. ServiceTitan CEO Ara Mahdessian received about $133.4 million in 2025.
His compensation was nearly six times the average S&P 500 CEO package, showing how the gap widens once the calculation moves from the typical corporate chief to the very highest earners.
Stephen Schwarzman rounds out the top 10
Blackstone CEO Stephen Schwarzman received approximately $125.6 million in 2025, completing the list of the 10 highest-paid CEOs highlighted here.
The extraordinary numbers at the top come as American workers continue to face a very different financial reality. According to the AFL-CIO, 37% of adults did not have enough cash to cover a $400 emergency expense, However, 23% of renters had fallen behind on rent during the previous year.
Workers at companies including Amazon, Dollar Tree, FedEx, McDonald’s and Walmart were also among the highest users of public assistance programmes such as Medicaid and SNAP. The divide is therefore not simply about CEOs earning more. It is about the speed and scale at which executive compensation has grown compared with ordinary wages.
The $22.8 million average hides an extraordinary reality
The AFL-CIO has tracked executive pay for three decades, and its latest report puts 2025 at the highest level of executive compensation recorded in that period, excluding Musk’s extraordinary package.
The average S&P 500 CEO earned $22.8 million. But look beyond that average and the picture changes, hundreds of millions for the executives near the top, and a $158 billion outlier at the very summit.
For workers worrying about whether the next paycheck will cover the next bill, corporate America’s biggest paydays can seem to belong to an entirely different economy.