AFL-CIO Report: CEO-Worker Pay Gap Hits Record in 2025

A new report from the AFL-CIO reveals that the gap between chief executive pay and worker wages in the United States reached a record high in 2025, driven largely by an extraordinary compensation package for Tesla CEO Elon Musk. The annual Executive Paywatch report, released on August 13, 2026, found that the average pay ratio of CEO to worker pay at S&P 500 companies soared to 5,387 to 1 when Musk's compensation is included. Excluding Musk, the average ratio was 312 to 1, up from 285 to 1 in 2024.

The report highlights that Musk received $158.3 billion in compensation from Tesla in 2025, a figure that dwarfs the total compensation of all other S&P 500 CEOs combined. This single pay package, approved by Tesla shareholders in November 2025, was 14 times higher than the combined pay of the other top executives. Musk's compensation was equivalent to the median Tesla worker's pay every 4.23 seconds. The AFL-CIO noted that a majority of S&P 500 CEOs made more in a single day than the median U.S. worker earned in an entire year.

Excluding Musk's Tesla compensation, average CEO pay at S&P 500 companies increased 21% from $18.9 million in 2024 to $22.8 million in 2025. This marks the...