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