The chief executive officers of America’s largest companies have enjoyed pay raises most years for decades. That was interrupted at some public corporations, as the COVID-19 pandemic caused some of them to agree to salary cuts due to a decline in earnings or large layoffs of their workers. U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) data for corporate compensation in 2021 shows how sharp the reversal can be. Dozens of CEOs have pay packages that range into the tens of millions of dollars. The lowest-paid CEO in America, however, is also one of the world’s richest men: Warren Buffet.
America does have a tradition of the $1 CEO. Steve Jobs was paid only $1 each year from 1997 through 2011. Apple could have paid him more, and he could have claimed he was due much higher compensation. However, the $1 was meant to show that he was in the same boat as investors. He owned hundreds of millions of dollars worth of Apple shares. If the stock rose, he benefited along with the other shareholders.
Most other CEOs in the $1 club have been in the tech industry and have owned large parts of their companies. This club has included Mark Zuckerberg of Facebook and Jack Dorsey of Twitter.
Proxies, which show CEO and other top executive pay as required by the SEC, have been posted by most S&P 500 companies. MyLogIQ, which uses machine learning and artificial intelligence to sort and explore SEC data, has provided 24/7 Wall St. with compensation data for S&P 500 companies that have released their proxies.
FAQs
Some of the best CEO's take the lowest salaries.
For instance, Marc Benioff of Salesforce took a salary of $1 at IPO, Patrick Shiong of Nant Health took no salary, Jack Dorsey at Square took only $3,750, and Jeff Bezos at Amazon took only $64,333.
What is the least salary of a CEO? ›
An Entry Level CEO with less than three years of experience earns an average salary of ₹46.9 Lakhs per year. A mid-career CEO with 4-9 years of experience earns an average salary of ₹22.7 Lakhs per year, while an experienced CEO with 10-20 years of experience earns an average salary of ₹39.2 Lakhs per year.
What is the salary of the CEO of a Fortune 500 company? ›
Over the last decade, the median pay awarded to CEOs across S&P 500 companies has doubled. In 2021, this number hit a high of $14.7 million. However, in 2022, the median CEO compensation package hit a wall for the first time in a decade as it slightly fell to $14.5 million.
What is the minimum salary for a CEO in the United States? ›
How much does a Chief Executive Officer make in the United States? The average Chief Executive Officer salary in the United States is $838,489 as of April 24, 2024, but the range typically falls between $633,609 and $1,080,346.
Which CEO makes $1 a year? ›
1. Larry Ellison, Co-Founder and CEO of Oracle. Since 2009, Larry Ellison's salary has amounted to just $1 a year. But, don't feel too bad for the guy—he's also the fifth richest person in the world with a net worth of $43 billion.
Who is the richest paid CEO? ›
Blackstone CEO Stephen Schwarzman topped the list of highest-paid leaders with a total compensation package of $253 million. The next CEO on the list, Sundar Pichai of Alphabet, Google's parent company, took home $226 million in 2022.
How much does a CEO of a $1 billion company make a year? ›
US CEO compensation
By company size, base, bonus, and total cash compensation all rise as revenue does, with total median cash compensation coming in at $1,639,000 at companies with revenue above $1 billion. By industry, CEOs at financial services firms are paid the most: $1,013,000 in median total cash compensation.
What is the salary of CEO of Google per month? ›
His annual salary is approximately Rs 1,663 crore, which means that his monthly salary is Rs around Rs 1,38,66,588. In April 2023, it was reported that the Google CEO received a total compensation of approximately USD 226 million (approximately Rs 1,854 crore) in 2022. This means that he earned Rs 5 crore per day.
How much does a CEO of a $10 million dollar company make? ›
In 2022, chief executives at early-stage companies that have raised over $10 million in financing were paid just under two hundred thousand dollars a year, $199,000.
What is Amazon CEOs salary? ›
Amazon CEO pay: Andrew Jassy's compensation plunges from $212 million to $1.3 million. Amazon.com CEO Andrew Jassy's 2022 pay plunged to $1.3 million, a sharp drop from his compensation package of $212 million in the prior year.
Elon Musk's $56 Billion Pay Package Might Have You Wondering: How Much Should You Pay Yourself? Inc.com.
How long do Fortune 500 CEOs last? ›
CEOs in the Fortune 500 have an average tenure of seven years. Also, by mid-year 2023, there was 9% CFO turnover in the Fortune 500, in comparison to 7% the same time last year. The report defines turnover as being in the position for six months or less.
How much does a CEO of a $2 million company make? ›
For example, CEO pay in organizations with revenue between $500k to $1M was a hair under $100,000. In the next revenue category—$1M to $2M—the 10th percentile was $116,408, which is not a big pay difference in actual dollars for leading an organization with double the amount of revenue.
How much does a CEO of a $50 million company make? ›
$50M to $150M
We found the lowest salary in this category to be $235,000. The highest salary for a CEO in a company with between $50M and $150M in revenue is $500,000. Of the participants in this category, the median salary is $300,000.
Are CEOs underpaid? ›
An Institute for Policy Studies report zeroed in on the 100 S&P 500 corporations with the lowest median worker pay levels in 2022. CEO pay in these “Low-Wage 100” firms averaged $15.3 million, and median worker pay averaged $31,672 in 2022. The average CEO-worker pay ratio in this group was 603 to 1.
What CEO jobs pay the most? ›
High Paying CEO Jobs
- Market President. Salary range: $400,000-$400,000 per year. ...
- President. Salary range: $115,000-$261,500 per year. ...
- Corporate President. Salary range: $115,000-$261,500 per year. ...
- President and CEO. Salary range: $106,500-$223,500 per year. ...
- Bank President. ...
- Executive. ...
- Banking Officer. ...
- Insurance Executive.
CEO compensation in 2021 (the latest year for which data on top 0.1% wage earners are available) was 7.68 times as high as wages of the top 0.1% of wage earners, a ratio 4.1 points greater than the 3.61-to-1 average CEO-to-top-0.1% ratio over the 1951–1979 period.
How much does Lowe's CEO make? ›
Lowe's CEO, Marvin Ellison, had a compensation of $17.5m in 2022, while the median worker pay was $29,584 for the year. CEOs of the “low-wage 100” who had been at their company from at least 2019 until 2022 saw their personal stock holdings increase 33% during those three years, growing an average of $184.7m.
