Table 1

CEO compensation, CEO-to-worker compensation ratio, and stock prices, 1965–2013 (2013 dollars)

CEO annual compensation (thousands)* Worker annual compensation (thousands) Stock market (adjusted to 2013) CEO-to-worker compensation ratio***
Private-sector production/nonsupervisory workers Firms’ industry** S&P 500 Dow Jones
1965 $819 $39.5 n/a          570            5,889 20.0
1973 $1,069 $46.4 n/a          503            4,330 22.3
1978 $1,463 $47.2 n/a          315            2,691 29.9
1989 $2,724 $44.7 n/a          586            4,553 58.7
1995 $5,768 $45.6 $51.5          822            6,829 122.6
2000 $20,172 $47.9 $53.8       1,931          14,506 383.4
2007 $18,541 $50.4 $54.0       1,660          14,805 351.3
2009 $10,394 $52.0 $57.3       1,030            9,650 193.2
2010 $12,466 $52.7 $58.0       1,218          11,398 227.9
2011 $12,667 $52.3 $57.6       1,313          12,381 231.8
2012 $14,765 $52.0 $57.1       1,400          13,155 278.2
2013 $15,175 $52.1 $55.8       1,644          15,010 295.9
Percent change Change in ratio
1965–1978 78.7% 19.5% n/a -44.8% -54.3% 9.9
1978–2000 1,279% 1.4% n/a 513% 439% 353.6
2000–2013 -24.8% 8.7% 3.6% -14.9% 3.5% -87.6
1978–2013 937% 10.2% n/a 422% 458% 237.2

* CEO annual compensation is computed using the "options realized" compensation series, which includes salary, bonus, restricted stock grants, options exercised, and long-term incentive payouts for CEOs at the top 350 U.S. firms ranked by sales.
** Annual compensation of the workers in the key industry of the firms in the sample
*** Based on averaging specific firm ratios and not the ratio of averages of CEO and worker compensation

Source: Authors' analysis of data from Compustat's ExecuComp database, Federal Reserve Economic Data (FRED) from the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis, the Current Employment Statistics program, and the Bureau of Economic Analysis NIPA tables

Copy the code below to embed this chart on your website.

This chart appears in:

Previous chart: «

Next chart: »