CEO pay is rising at the largest companies in the US, while employee pay rises simultaneously, but at a slower pace.
A Monday STUDY created for The Associated Press by Equilar presents a broad view of the pay packages awarded to hundreds of CEOs last year.
The study focused on S&P 500 companies, narrowing the list to 341 CEOs in their positions for at least two consecutive years to avoid inflated numbers caused by joining bonuses.
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The researchers took public data from proxy statements filed by those companies between January 1 and April 30 and looked at how much CEOs earned compared to employees in the middle of the company's pay hierarchy.
They found that last year's average pay package for CEOs, including base salary, bonuses, benefits and stock awards, was $16.3 million, a 12.6% increase from 2022.
Base pay for CEOs was $1.3 million, up 4% from 2022, while stock prices rose 10.7% to $9.4 million.
At the same time, wages for private industry workers pink with a decrease of 4.1%.
“At half the companies in this year's salary survey, it would take a worker in the middle of the company's pay scale almost 200 years to make what their CEO made,” AP DECLARING.
This disparity is starkest at the top of the charts, where the pay packages of CEOs at Apple, Broadcom and Netflix are more than 200 times what the average worker earns.
At Apple, for example, it would take an employee in the middle of the company's hierarchy 672 years to earn as much as CEO Tim Cook makes in one year.
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Who are these high-earning CEOs? Broadcom CEO Hock E. Tan tops the list with a pay package of about $162 million.
Broadcom has in capital letter in the AI boom making custom AI chips for major companies. The bulk of Tan's compensation consists of stock awards worth $160.5 million.
Although Tesla's Elon Musk isn't on the list, Musk can receive a historic $56 billion pay package if Tesla shareholders vote to ratify it at Tesla's annual meeting on June 13.
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Here are the five CEOs with the highest pay packages in 2023, and how much they earn compared to the average employee at the company.
1. Hock E. Tan
Hock Tan, CEO of Broadcom. Photo by Ying Tang/NurPhoto via Getty Images
Company: Broadcom Inc.
Sector: Communication and Tech
Payment package: $161,826,161
510 times more than the average worker
2. William J. Lansing
Company: Fair Issac Corporation
Sector: Communication and Tech
Payment package: $66,349,962
653 times more than the average worker
3. Timothy D. Cook
Tim Cook, CEO of Apple. Photo: David Paul Morris/Bloomberg via Getty Images
Company: Apple Inc.
Sector: Communication and Tech
Payment package: $63,209,845
672 times more than the average worker
4. Hamid R. Moghaddam
Company: Prologis, Inc.
Sector: Real estate
Payment package: $50,891,597
400 times more than the average worker
5. Theodore A. Sarandos
Company: Netflix, Inc.
Sector: Communication and Tech
Payment package: $49,834,936
248 times more than the average worker
Click here for the full list.