AFL-CIO Report Shows Top CEOs Made 312 Times Workers' Pay in 2025

New research shows S&P 500 CEOs received $22.8 million on average in 2025, a 21% increase from the previous year, while working people struggle to make ends meet. 

(Washington, D.C.)—S&P 500 CEOs took home an average pay of $22.8 million in 2025 and made 312 times the wage of the median U.S. worker, up from 285 times in 2024, the AFL-CIO’s 2026 Executive Paywatch report showed. While working Americans are struggling over every bill, every purchase and every paycheck, corporate CEOs are doing better than ever.

The AFL-CIO’s annual report analyzes new data on growing pay disparity between S&P 500 CEOs and the workers who make their companies profitable. Thanks to a 21% increase over the previous year, this year’s report shows the highest-ever level of executive compensation in three decades of tracking—not including Elon Musk’s $158.3 billion pay package, who became a trillionaire this year—a figure so high it would have skewed the data on its own.

Key findings include:

• Factoring in Musk’s $158.3 billion Tesla pay package, the average S&P CEO pay exploded to $340.1 million in annual salary, a 1,700% increase from 2024. Musk’s total compensation alone was 2,522,203 times the median Tesla worker’s pay in 2025.
   
• President Trump returned to the White House and cashed in on $2.2 billion in income in 2025—almost a 254% increase from what he received in 2024. The median U.S. worker would need 43,154 years to earn what Trump made in his first year back in office.
   
• Workers’ share of U.S. national income fell to its lowest level since World War II. While their bosses rake in millions, workers at Amazon, Dollar Tree, FedEx, McDonald’s and Walmart are among the highest users of public assistance, relying on programs like Medicaid and SNAP to make ends meet.
   
• As CEOs gave themselves a 21% raise, 16% of adults cannot pay all their bills in full, 26% skipped medical care due to cost, 37% do not have enough cash to cover a $400 emergency expense and 23% of renters fell behind on their rent in the past year.

“As shown in our latest Paywatch report, executive compensation has reached a new, shameful high,” said AFL-CIO Secretary-Treasurer Fred Redmond. “Elon Musk became the world’s first trillionaire. Donald Trump raked in over $2 billion since the 2024 election. Meanwhile, working Americans are struggling to feed their kids and pay their electric bills. But there's a better economy we can build for working people. That’s why the labor movement will continue to fight for every worker to have a union contract that begins to level the playing field and ensures they take home the share of the profit they create. And it’s why we are spending every day until November organizing and mobilizing 16 million union voters to elect pro-worker politicians who will work for us, not wealthy CEOs.”

The full report and findings can be viewed at paywatch.org. The Executive Paywatch database includes CEO compensation data filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission and collected by CSuiteComp.com for more than 3,800 corporations. Additional information about the methodology of this research can be found here.