Highest-paid CEOs in America

Among the most hotly contested debates in America is what to make of the vast discrepancy between the salaries of the country's top-earning CEOs and the average workers at their companies.

CEO compensation rose nearly 1,045% between 1978 and 2022, according to a report from the Economic Policy Institute released in September 2023. Their findings showed that CEOs made 344 times as much as a typical worker in 2022, a massive spike from the 21-1 ratio in 1965. Amid the United Auto Workers strike in the fall of 2023, for example, NPR reported that General Motors CEO Mary Barra's 2022 salary was 362 times that of the median GM employee.

That ratio widens even further when looking at companies with lower median wages. In an in-depth analysis of the 100 S&P 500 corporations with the lowest median worker pay levels in 2022, the Institute for Policy Studies found that the average CEO-worker pay gap was 603-to-1.

To see which CEOs make the most money in the U.S., Stacker analyzed data from the AFL-CIO to determine the 20 highest-paid CEOs nationwide. All pay data is for 2023. Any CEOs who did not still hold their position as of August 2024 were excluded.

You'll notice some of the biggest names in business, like Tesla CEO Elon Musk (who's currently in a legal battle regarding his $56 billion pay package) and Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg (whose salary is technically $1 per year), are not on the list. But who did make the cut? Read on to see how much the chief executives of top companies made.

You may also like: Manufacturers in these states spend the most on equipment

#25. Satya Nadella (Microsoft Corp.)

Stephen Brashear // Getty Images

- CEO pay: $48,512,537

- Median worker pay: $194,050

- CEO to worker pay ratio: 250:1

#24. Robert Antokol (Playtika Holding Corp.)

Idrees Abbas/SOPA Images // LightRocket via Getty Images

- CEO pay: $48,989,446

- Median worker pay: $98,769

- CEO to worker pay ratio: 496:1

#23. David Michery (Mullen Automotive Inc.)

Patrick T. Fallon // AFP via Getty Images

- CEO pay: $49,629,463

- Median worker pay: $61,959

- CEO to worker pay ratio: 801:1

#22. David M. Zaslav (Warner Bros. Discovery, Inc.)

Slaven Vlasic // Getty Images for The New York Times

- CEO pay: $49,702,546

- Median worker pay: $171,388

- CEO to worker pay ratio: 290:1

#21. Ted Sarandos (Netflix Inc.)

JC Olivera // Getty Images

- CEO pay: $49,834,936

- Median worker pay: $200,947

- CEO to worker pay ratio: 248:1

You may also like: The cost of these 5 construction materials grew the most in 2023

#20. Joseph Bae (Kkr & Co. Inc.)

JP Yim // Getty Images for The Asian American Foundation

- CEO pay: $49,959,449

- Median worker pay: $208,164

- CEO to worker pay ratio: 240:1

#19. James Belardi (Athene Holding Ltd.)

Pavlo Gonchar/SOPA Images // LightRocket via Getty Images

- CEO pay: $50,782,768

- Median worker pay: $96,179

- CEO to worker pay ratio: 528:1

#18. Hamid Moghadam (Prologis, Inc.)

Kimberly White // Getty Images for Pars Equality Center

- CEO pay: $50,891,597

- Median worker pay: $127,229

- CEO to worker pay ratio: 400:1

#17. Gary Steele (Splunk Inc.)

CryptoFX // Shutterstock

- CEO pay: $51,212,720

- Median worker pay: $238,199

- CEO to worker pay ratio: 215:1

#16. Githesh Ramamurthy (CCC Intelligent Solutions Holdings Inc.)

T. Schneider // Shutterstock

- CEO pay: $54,549,486

- Median worker pay: $158,574

- CEO to worker pay ratio: 344:1

You may also like: Cashiers vs. digital ordering: What do people want, and at what cost?

#15. Jay Chaudhry (Zscaler, Inc.)

Pavlo Gonchar/SOPA Images // LightRocket via Getty Images

- CEO pay: $57,775,483

- Median worker pay: $181,114

- CEO to worker pay ratio: 319:1

#14. Tim Cook (Apple Inc.)

Justin Sullivan // Getty Images

- CEO pay: $63,209,845

- Median worker pay: $94,062

- CEO to worker pay ratio: 672:1

#13. William Lansing (Fair Isaac Corp.)

Michael Vi // Shutterstock

- CEO pay: $66,349,962

- Median worker pay: $101,608

- CEO to worker pay ratio: 653:1

#12. David Risher (Lyft, Inc.)

Paul Morigi // Getty Images for Haddad Media

- CEO pay: $78,238,027

- Median worker pay: $150,748

- CEO to worker pay ratio: 519:1

#11. Adam Foroughi (Applovin Corp.)

Poetra.RH // Shutterstock

- CEO pay: $83,361,678

- Median worker pay: $104,857

- CEO to worker pay ratio: 795:1

You may also like: 9 currencies that no longer exist

#10. Ariel Emanuel (Endeavor Group Holdings, Inc.)

Amy Sussman // Getty Images

- CEO pay: $83,879,505

- Median worker pay: $70,844

- CEO to worker pay ratio: 1184:1

#9. Pablo Legorreta (Royalty Pharma PLC)

Craig Barritt // Getty Images for ICP

- CEO pay: $84,837,077

- Median worker pay: $353,488

- CEO to worker pay ratio: 240:1

#8. Christopher Winfrey (Charter Communications, Inc.)

John Hanson Pye // Shuttestock

- CEO pay: $89,077,078

- Median worker pay: $54,481

- CEO to worker pay ratio: 1635:1

#7. Stephen Schwarzman (Blackstone Inc.)

Roy Rochlin // Getty Images

- CEO pay: $119,784,375

- Median worker pay: $244,958

- CEO to worker pay ratio: 489:1

#6. George Mattson (Wheels Up Experience Inc.)

Marcus Ingram // Getty Images for Wheels Up

- CEO pay: $148,978,853

- Median worker pay: $61,920

- CEO to worker pay ratio: 2406:1

You may also like: Richest states by decade since 1930

#5. Sue Nabi (Coty Inc.)

Jamie McCarthy // Getty Images for DKMS Gala

- CEO pay: $149,429,486

- Median worker pay: $39,647

- CEO to worker pay ratio: 3769:1

#4. Nikesh Arora (Palo Alto Networks Inc.)

David Cannon // Getty Images

- CEO pay: $151,425,203

- Median worker pay: $206,021

- CEO to worker pay ratio: 735:1

#3. Hock Tan (Broadcom Inc.)

Ying Tang/NurPhoto // Getty Images

- CEO pay: $161,826,161

- Median worker pay: $317,306

- CEO to worker pay ratio: 510:1

#2. Harvey Schwartz (Carlyle Group Inc.)

Steven Ferdman // Getty Images

- CEO pay: $186,994,098

- Median worker pay: $230,005

- CEO to worker pay ratio: 813:1

#1. Jon Winkelried (TPG Inc.)

T. Schneider // Shutterstock

- CEO pay: $198,685,926

- Median worker pay: $290,902

- CEO to worker pay ratio: 683:1

You may also like: 10 most commonly stolen car models in every state