20 CEOs who make a typical worker's yearly pay in less than a day
Business Insider ranked dozens of companies in the S&P 500 based on how long it would take their CEO to make what a typical worker makes in a year.
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Business Wire; Dia Dipasupil/Getty Images; Tommaso Boddi/Variety via Getty Images; Chelsea Jia Feng/BI
- How long does it take a CEO to make what workers at their company earn in a year?
- BI analyzed the compensation of CEOs and median employees from S&P 500 companies to find out.
- For some CEOs at big companies, it would only take several hours.
For some chief executives, it would take about a day to make what a typical employee at their company makes in a year. For some leaders, it would take even less time than that.
We looked at the compensation of dozens of CEOs working for some of the biggest S&P 500 companies to figure out how long it would take them to get to the median employee's annual compensation based on data filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission for the 2024 fiscal year.
We then ranked the executives from longest to shortest time, rounded to the nearest minute. The CEOs of Starbucks, McDonald's, and several other retail companies ranked high on the list.
Below are the 20 that took the shortest length among the CEOs we looked at.
Chris Jung/NurPhoto via Getty Images
CEO compensation: $30,449,599
Median worker compensation: $75,643
Stephen Brashear/Getty Images
CEO compensation: $79,106,183
Median worker compensation: $193,744
The financial filing said that the company identified the median employee using workers as of the last day of its fiscal year but didn't include people who joined the company as part of the acquisition of Activision Blizzard.
ANTHONY WALLACE/AFP via Getty Images
CEO compensation: $39,408,629
Median worker compensation: $92,958
"Our median employee is an entry level Operations Manager, based in Hong Kong," the financial filing said.
Leigh Vogel/Getty Images for Concordia Summit
CEO compensation: $20,237,916
Median worker compensation: $47,109
"Approximately 58% of our employees are located in non-OECD countries, which tend to be lesser developed countries with lower wages than OECD countries," the financial filing said.
FREDERIC J. BROWN/AFP via Getty Images
CEO compensation: $15,574,678
Median worker compensation: $35,196
"Our median-paid associate for Fiscal 2024 was an hourly employee in the U.S.," the financial filing said.
Vernon Yuen/NurPhoto via Getty Images
CEO compensation: $31,142,602
Median worker compensation: $70,138
"The 'annual total compensation' of our median employee includes salary as of December 31, 2024, overtime pay, other fixed pay, incentive compensation, if applicable, and company-paid benefits," the financial filing said.
Li Xin/Xinhua News Agency via Getty Images
CEO compensation: $30,138,094
Median worker compensation: $63,197
"The median employee is an accounts specialist based in the United States," the financial filing said.
SAJJAD HUSSAIN/AFP via Getty Images
CEO compensation: $25,143,682
Median worker compensation: $48,582
FABRICE COFFRINI/AFP via Getty Images
CEO compensation: $28,814,759
Median worker compensation: $53,551
Roger Mastroianni/Getty Images for Eaton
CEO compensation: $22,597,466
Median worker compensation: $40,157
Silas Stein/picture alliance via Getty Images
CEO compensation: $37,164,405
Median worker compensation: $60,421
Justin Sullivan/Getty Images
CEO compensation: $74,609,802
Median worker compensation: $114,738
"We offer a wide range of benefits to our global employee population, and we are committed to paying our employees competitively and equitably based on their role," the financial filing said.
VCG/VCG via Getty Images
CEO compensation: $41,122,670
Median worker compensation: $55,111
"The median Disney employee works in a full-time hourly role in parks and has been with the Company for over seven years," the financial filing said.
Ethan Miller/Getty Images
CEO compensation: $26,968,924
Median worker compensation: $27,642
Richa Naidu/Reuters
CEO compensation: $18,195,263
Median worker compensation: $17,492
"Our median employee for 2024 is a restaurant crew employee located in Poland," the financial filing said.
Artur Widak/NurPhoto via Getty Images
CEO compensation: $24,915,146
Median worker compensation: $22,106
"Because of the geographical distribution of our workforce, our compensation program reflects many factors to determine how we compensate our employees in different countries around the world," the financial filing said.
Drew Angerer/Getty Images
CEO compensation: $88,954,586
Median worker compensation: $69,553
"As a result of the employee population changes in connection with the spin-off of GE Vernova in April 2024, we determined that a new median employee should be selected," the financial filing said, which also said, "General Electric Company operates as GE Aerospace."
Scott Olson/Getty Images
CEO compensation: $22,222,769
Median worker compensation: $14,857
The financial filing said the "median employee for purposes of our pay ratio estimate was a part-time hourly retail store Associate" for the 2024 fiscal year.
STEPHANE DE SAKUTIN/AFP via Getty Images
CEO compensation: $28,002,284
Median worker compensation: $14,144
The financial filing said that "employees in flexible, part-time roles, such as certain employees at retail stores operated by Costa Limited, our coffee business, lower the annual total compensation for our median employee."
Jakub Porzycki/NurPhoto via Getty Images
CEO compensation: $97,813,843
Median worker compensation: $14,674
"Partners frequently work in flexible, part-time roles, which has the effect of lowering the annual total compensation for our median employee," the financial filing said.
