Money

Economic Policy Institute - CEO pay dipped in 2023 but remains enormous compared with the pay of other workers. Key finding:

• From 1978–2023, top CEO compensation shot up 1,085%, compared with a 24% increase in a typical worker’s compensation.  

• In 2023, CEOs were paid 290 times as much as a typical worker—in contrast to 1965, when they were paid 21 times as much as a typical worker. 

• That CEOs were paid nearly 10 times as much as the top 0.1% of U.S. wage earners in 2022 illustrates just how distorted CEO pay increases have become.

• CEO pay is linked strongly to the stock market—but in 2023, the stock market held fairly steady, while there was an uncharacteristic dip in CEO pay.

CEOs are getting paid more because of their leverage over corporate boards, not because of their skills or contributions they make to their firms. Exorbitant CEO pay has contributed to rising inequality in recent decades as it has likely pulled up the pay of other top earners—concentrating earnings at the top and leaving fewer gains for ordinary workers.