Golden Data

Data story · executive pay

How far CEO pay pulled away

In 1965 the boss of a big U.S. company made about 21 times what a typical worker made — a gap you could almost picture. Today it’s measured in the hundreds-to-one, and it swings with the stock market, because executive pay is mostly stock.

Jun 28, 20262 sources

The ratio peaked at 408 : 1 in 2021 — the average big-company CEO out-earned a typical worker by that much in a single year. It was 21 : 1 in 1965, and still 325 : 1 in 2025.

CEO-to-worker compensation ratio (options-realized) at the 350 largest U.S. firms, 1965–2025. CEO pay is mostly stock, so the ratio swings with the market — the 2021 high and the earlier dot-com spike both line up with the S&P 500.

CEO-to-worker pay ratioS&P 500 (right axis)— options-realized, top 350 U.S. firms

Data: EPI State of Working America Data Library (CEO-to-worker pay ratio, realized), the authoritative source behind EPI’s published CEO-pay reports; S&P 500 from Robert Shiller. Feed: public/data/pay-gap-ratio.csv, built by scripts/build-pay-gap.mjs. View the original on Tableau Public →

What does your CEO make?

The chart above is the market-wide average. This makes it personal — search a company you know and see its own CEO-to-median-worker gap, straight from the SEC proxy every public company has to file.

Starbucks

Brian Niccol · CEO · FY2025

1,794:1CEO-to-worker

Starbucks’s median worker would need 1,794 years to earn what Niccol made in one.

CEO pay$31.0M$30,992,773
Median worker$17K$17,279
Starbucks1,794:1
350 largest firms, 2025325:1

That’s 5.5× the typical big-company gap (the 350 largest U.S. firms averaged ~325:1 in 2025). #1 of 16 companies here. Source: FY2025 proxy →

NoteThe median employee is a part-time U.S. barista. Fiscal 2024's 6,666 to 1 used Niccol's first-year pay annualized to $97.8M, most of it sign-on equity.

Figures are each company’s own SEC-disclosed CEO-to-median-worker pay ratio (required in proxy statements since 2018). For the 60-year trend behind the average, see How far CEO pay pulled away →