The highest-paid CEOs don't all lead the world's biggest companies.
Some chief executives at smaller tech and financial firms are out-earning the top brass at Apple, Blackstone and other heavy hitters in the Fortune 500, according to new research from C-Suite Comp, a data analytics firm that tracks leaders' compensation at nearly 4,000 publicly traded U.S. companies.
On Monday, C-Suite Comp published its list of the highest-paid CEOs of 2023 based on "total compensation granted," a measure that includes executives' salaries, bonuses, perks and stock options, among other factors.
CEOs often receive restricted stock or options as a significant part of their compensation, the value of which can fluctuate based on the company's performance and market conditions.
To improve pay transparency, the Securities and Exchange Commission finalized a rule in 2022 requiring public companies to disclose how much CEOs are poised to make in a given year by calculating gains and losses in the stock awards that make up much of their pay packages.
This new measure of executive earnings, dubbed "compensation actually paid" under SEC rules, is designed to help stakeholders better understand how executive pay aligns with the company's financial performance.
C-Suite Comp includes two rankings of executive earnings in its report: one based on "total compensation granted" in 2023, and another using "compensation actually paid," which accounts for recent changes in the value of current and potential stock holdings.
Here's how much the U.S.'s best-paid CEOs are being awarded, as of 2023:
TPG CEO Jon Winkelried topped the list of highest-paid leaders with a total compensation package of nearly $199 million. Right below him on the list is Harvey Schwartz of the Carlyle Group, who was granted $187 million in 2023 — more than 800 times what the median Carlyle employee received.
Using the "compensation actually paid" metric, the highest-paid CEO in 2023 was Elon Musk of Tesla, who earned about $1.4 billion.
On June 13, Tesla shareholders voted in favor of restoring Musk's 10-year pay plan, valued by the company at about $44.9 billion, the Associated Press reports.
The all-stock package rewards the co-founder and longtime CEO for turning Tesla into the top-selling electric vehicle marker in the world, increasing its market value by billions.
CEOs make nearly 200 times more than the average worker, and their pay hikes keep outpacing their employees, according to recent data analyzed for The Associated Press by Equilar.
Median compensation packages for S&P 500 CEOs rose nearly 13% last year, the AP reports. Workers, however, saw wages rise by 5.2% in the last year, just above the rate of inflation.
In 2023, median CEO pay hit $16.3 million while the median S&P 500 employee earned $81,467.
The CEO-to-worker pay gap widened last year to discourage executives from quitting, especially as businesses have performed well in the stock market, according to Equilar data.
Of the 21 CEOs included in C-Suite Comp's rankings, two are women. The highest-paid female CEOs include Sue Nabi of Coty (about $149 million in total compensation granted) and Safra Catz of Oracle (about $304 million in compensation actually paid).
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