CEO compensation, CEO-to-worker compensation ratio, and stock prices (2025$), selected years, 1965–2025
| CEO annual compensation (thousands) | Stock market (indexed to 2025$) | Private-sector production/nonsupervisory workers annual compensation (thousands) |
CEO-to-worker compensation ratio | CEO-to-Top 1% | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Year(s) | Realized | Granted | S&P 500 | Dow Jones | All private-sector workers | Workers in the firms’ industries* | Realized | Granted | Top 0.1% wages | Ratio of CEO pay to top 0.1% wages |
| 1965 | $1,104 | $841 | 736 | 7,605 | $50 | 20.6 | 15.3 | $470,452 | 2.3 | |
| 1966 | 689 | 7,057 | $51 | $515,859 | ||||||
| 1967 | 724 | 6,923 | $52 | $494,454 | ||||||
| 1968 | $1,371 | $1,044 | 745 | 6,845 | $53 | 24.3 | 18.0 | $505,966 | 2.7 | |
| 1969 | 710 | 6,361 | $54 | $518,063 | ||||||
| 1970 | 576 | 5,216 | $55 | $518,384 | ||||||
| 1971 | 653 | 5,878 | $56 | $484,383 | ||||||
| 1972 | 704 | 6,129 | $59 | $543,657 | ||||||
| 1973 | $1,441 | $1,097 | 651 | 5,598 | $59 | 23.0 | 17.0 | $584,551 | 2.5 | |
| 1974 | 457 | 4,187 | $58 | $647,635 | ||||||
| 1975 | 439 | 4,088 | $57 | $675,097 | ||||||
| 1976 | 491 | 4,697 | $58 | $654,439 | ||||||
| 1977 | 444 | 4,046 | $59 | $733,617 | ||||||
| 1978 | $1,973 | $1,502 | 407 | 3,477 | $60 | 30.7 | 22.8 | $629,439 | 3.1 | |
| 1979 | 398 | 3,266 | $59 | $633,170 | ||||||
| 1980 | 414 | 3,104 | $58 | $701,852 | ||||||
| 1981 | 407 | 2,966 | $58 | $702,975 | ||||||
| 1982 | 359 | 2,652 | $58 | $783,432 | ||||||
| 1983 | 462 | 3,427 | $58 | $835,466 | ||||||
| 1984 | 443 | 3,255 | $58 | $941,801 | ||||||
| 1985 | 499 | 3,547 | $58 | $950,188 | ||||||
| 1986 | 621 | 4,712 | $58 | $1,061,456 | ||||||
| 1987 | 730 | 5,789 | $58 | $1,336,815 | ||||||
| 1988 | 652 | 5,053 | $57 | $1,567,320 | ||||||
| 1989 | $3,682 | $2,803 | 759 | 5,895 | $57 | 60.1 | 44.6 | $1,487,288 | 2.5 | |
| 1990 | 749 | 6,000 | $57 | $1,520,725 | ||||||
| 1991 | 813 | 6,329 | $57 | $1,334,495 | ||||||
| 1992 | $6,527 | $4,969 | 876 | 6,921 | $57 | $65 | 106.7 | 79.2 | $1,665,769 | 3.9 |
| 1993 | $6,855 | $6,188 | 929 | 7,249 | $57 | $66 | 108.3 | 99.2 | $1,508,198 | 4.5 |
| 1994 | $5,582 | $7,475 | 927 | 7,636 | $58 | $65 | 87.6 | 117.9 | $1,410,467 | 4.0 |
| 1995 | $7,143 | $7,935 | 1,065 | 8,845 | $57 | $65 | 117.1 | 130.1 | $1,582,610 | 4.5 |
| 1996 | $9,330 | $11,010 | 1,284 | 11,001 | $57 | $64 | 150.0 | 176.4 | $1,704,181 | 5.5 |
| 1997 | $14,183 | $14,647 | 1,638 | 13,957 | $58 | $65 | 223.1 | 234.8 | $1,971,883 | 7.2 |
| 1998 | $20,832 | $19,811 | 2,008 | 15,968 | $60 | $69 | 304.2 | 301.5 | $2,216,353 | 9.4 |
| 1999 | $18,656 | $19,457 | 2,406 | 18,998 | $60 | $70 | 275.2 | 288.4 | $2,537,948 | 7.4 |
| 2000 | $25,784 | $25,809 | 2,500 | 18,788 | $61 | $70 | 379.6 | 393.0 | $2,837,362 | 9.1 |
| 2001 | $14,408 | $21,776 | 2,046 | 17,486 | $62 | $72 | 214.2 | 325.7 | $2,399,578 | 6.0 |
| 2002 | $12,526 | $16,289 | 1,682 | 15,594 | $63 | $73 | 186.2 | 234.9 | $2,104,961 | 6.0 |
| 2003 | $16,132 | $15,943 | 1,600 | 14,930 | $64 | $75 | 228.5 | 226.4 | $2,112,031 | 7.6 |
| 2004 | $18,262 | $16,346 | 1,828 | 16,682 | $64 | $75 | 261.8 | 231.9 | $2,428,699 | 7.5 |
| 2005 | $22,041 | $17,063 | 1,897 | 16,576 | $64 | $75 | 319.5 | 244.3 | $2,575,465 | 8.6 |
| 2006 | $22,534 | $16,752 | 2,002 | 17,427 | $64 | $76 | 322.4 | 237.3 | $2,719,148 | 8.3 |
| 2007 | $23,316 | $17,664 | 2,200 | 19,625 | $65 | $76 | 328.1 | 241.8 | $2,979,119 | 7.8 |
| 2008 | $15,213 | $15,904 | 1,753 | 16,152 | $65 | $76 | 199.9 | 218.0 | $2,617,458 | 5.8 |
| 2009 | $12,221 | $13,443 | 1,367 | 12,816 | $67 | $78 | 166.3 | 181.1 | $2,155,249 | 5.7 |
| 2010 | $15,469 | $15,237 | 1,622 | 15,179 | $68 | $79 | 210.1 | 204.1 | $2,416,724 | 6.4 |
| 2011 | $16,914 | $15,492 | 1,749 | 16,501 | $67 | $78 | 238.9 | 212.4 | $2,421,347 | 7.0 |
| 2012 | $25,063 | $14,716 | 1,867 | 17,552 | $67 | $77 | 362.0 | 204.5 | $2,767,548 | 9.1 |
| 2013 | $21,815 | $15,483 | 2,199 | 20,076 | $67 | $78 | 317.2 | 210.0 | $2,502,583 | 8.7 |
| 2014 | $22,833 | $15,905 | #N/A | #N/A | $68 | $78 | 318.2 | 219.9 | $2,749,518 | 8.3 |
| 2015 | $23,511 | $16,053 | #N/A | #N/A | $69 | $79 | 319.8 | 215.2 | $2,845,740 | 8.3 |
| 2016 | $20,655 | $16,655 | #N/A | #N/A | $70 | $80 | 269.3 | 219.5 | $2,666,773 | 7.7 |
| 2017 | $23,002 | $18,206 | 3,149 | 27,962 | $70 | $82 | 294.4 | 233.6 | $2,907,964 | 7.9 |
| 2018 | $22,479 | $17,910 | 3,461 | 31,574 | $71 | $83 | 283.5 | 228.8 | $2,903,321 | 7.7 |
| 2019 | $25,356 | $18,393 | 3,618 | 32,759 | $72 | $83 | 311.7 | 229.3 | $2,938,152 | 8.6 |
| 2020 | $29,836 | $17,186 | 3,955 | 33,049 | $75 | $85 | 355.9 | 212.5 | $3,207,600 | 9.3 |
| 2021 | $33,131 | $22,362 | 5,027 | 40,064 | $75 | $85 | 407.8 | 272.8 | $3,938,568 | 8.4 |
| 2022 | $28,824 | $17,919 | 4,477 | 35,934 | $74 | $83 | 360.2 | 225.5 | $3,015,074 | 9.6 |
| 2023 | $21,440 | $15,923 | 4,503 | 35,868 | $75 | $84 | 265.9 | 196.8 | $2,874,267 | 7.5 |
| 2024 | $24,514 | $17,577 | 5,562 | 41,317 | $76 | $86 | 290.2 | 212.5 | ||
| 2025 | $27,943 | $21,014 | 6,217 | 44,302 | $77 | $88 | 324.7 | 246.9 | ||
| Percent change | Change in ratio | |||||||||
| 1965-1978 | 79% | 79% | -45% | -54% | 20% | 10.1 | 7.5 | 34% | 0.8 | |
| 1978–2025 | 1316% | 1299% | 1428% | 1174% | 28% | 293.9 | 224.1 | |||
| 2024–2025 | 14.0% | 19.6% | 11.8% | 7.2% | 1.5% | 2.4% | 34.5 | 34.4 | ||
*Average annual compensation of the workers in the key industry of the firms in the sample.
** We round numbers to the nearest thousand in Table 1, but dollar and percent changes are calculated using unrounded data.
Notes: Average annual compensation for CEOs at the top 350 U.S. firms ranked by sales is measured in two ways. Both include salary, bonus, and long-term incentive payouts, but the “granted” measure includes the value of stock options and stock awards when they were granted, whereas the “realized” measure captures the value of stock-related components that accrues after options or stock awards are granted by including “stock options exercised” and “vested stock awards.” CEO compensation for 2025 is projected from data reported through August 2025. CEO-to-worker compensation ratios are based on averaging specific firm ratios in samples and not the ratio of averages of CEO and worker compensation. Ratios prior to 1992 are constructed as described in the CEO pay series methodology (Sabadish and Mishel 2013).
Source: Authors’ analysis of data from Compustat’s ExecuComp database, the Federal Reserve Economic Data (FRED) database from the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis, the Bureau of Labor Statistics’ Current Employment Statistics data series, and the Bureau of Economic Analysis NIPA tables.
This chart appears in:
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