The Gap Between CEO and Worker Pay Keeps Increasing - And Trump's Policies Are Making It Grow Faster
Ten years ago, just months after announcing his presidential campaign, Donald Trump called sky-high CEO pay “disgraceful,” telling CBS’s Face the Nation in 2015: “You see these guys making enormous amounts of money, and it’s a total and complete joke.”
Since then, average CEO pay—and the gap between it and median worker pay—has grown even more. And as president, Trump’s policies are making that inequality even worse.
The average CEO-to-worker-pay ratio for S&P 500 Index companies in 2024 was 285 to 1, according to the AFL-CIO’s annual Executive Paywatch report—an increase from 268 to 1 in 2023.
In 2024, as Americans fretted about the rising costs of eggs and housing, and the way they felt the country’s economy was leaving them behind, the average CEO of an S&P 500 company saw an average pay increase of $1.24 million. In 2024, the CEOs at those companies received $18.9 million in total compensation, up 7% from the year prior.