If the Top 10 S&P 500 CEO Salaries Were Distributed Equally Among Workers, How Much Money Would Each Person Make?

Turker Minaz / iStock.com

Commitment to Our Readers

GOBankingRates' editorial team is committed to bringing you unbiased reviews and information. We use data-driven methodologies to evaluate financial products and services - our reviews and ratings are not influenced by advertisers. You can read more about our editorial guidelines and our products and services review methodology.

20 Years
Helping You Live Richer

Reviewed
by Experts

Trusted by
Millions of Readers

The average total compensation for CEOs at S&P 500 companies was $18.9 million in 2024, according to American Federation of Labor and Congress of Industrial Organizations (AFL-CIO). That’s a 7% increase from the year before. That same year, the median pay for employees was just $49,500 — about a 3% increase.

That’s a substantial difference between the two sides. But the employees play a pivotal role in keeping a company running. And with rising costs, it wouldn’t be remiss to boost their pay a little (or a lot).

In an ideal world, CEOs and their employees would have more equal pay. And while it’s a thought experiment only, this pay gap begs the question: How much money would each employee at their respective company make if their CEO’s pay was distributed equally amongst them? Find out below.

QXO, Inc.

• CEO: Brad Jacobs
• CEO pay: $189,367,735
• Estimated employee count: 211, per Yahoo Finance
• CEO pay split evenly across all company employees: $897,477

Veeva Systems, Inc.

• CEO: Peter Gassner
• CEO pay: $172,436,133
• Estimated employee count: 7,291, per Macrotrends
• CEO pay split evenly across all company employees: $23,650

Axon Enterprise, Inc.

• CEO: Patrick Smith
• CEO pay: $164,525,721
• Estimated employee count: 4,970, per Macrotrends
• CEO pay split evenly across all company employees: $33,104

Snowflake, Inc.

• CEO: Sridhar Ramaswamy
• CEO pay: $101,325,374
• Estimated employee count: 7,834, per Macrotrends
• CEO pay split evenly across all company employees: $12,934

Starbucks Corp.

• CEO: Brian Niccol
• CEO pay: $95,801,676
• Estimated employee count: 381,500, per Macrotrends
• CEO pay split evenly across all company employees: $251

General Electric Co.

• CEO: Lawrence Culp
• CEO pay: $88,954,586
• Estimated employee count: 57,000, per StockAnalysis.com
• CEO pay split evenly across all company employees: $1,561

Tevogen Bio Holdings, Inc.

• CEO: Ryan Saadi
• CEO pay: $87,764,783
• Estimated employee count: 17, per PitchBook
• CEO pay split evenly across all company employees: $5,162,634

Ares Management Corp.

• CEO: Michael Arougheti
• CEO pay: $85,381,842
• Estimated employee count: 3,200, per Macrotrends
• CEO pay split evenly across all company employees: $26,682

Playtika Holding Corp.

• CEO: Robert Antokol
• CEO pay: $84,141,574
• Estimated employee count: 3,500, per StockAnalysis.com
• CEO pay split evenly across all company employees: $24,040

Blackstone, Inc.

• CEO: Stephen Schwarzman
• CEO pay: $84,027,074
• Estimated employee count: 4,895, per Macrotrends
• CEO pay split evenly across all company employees: $17,166

Distributing All S&P 500 CEOs’ Salaries Across Workers

The combined total compensation for the top 10 S&P 500 CEOs is $1,153,726,498, or just under $1.2 billion. As of the latest U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics data (2023), there were 171.9 million total US workers. If you were to split the total CEO pay across these workers, the individual pay would be $6.71.

When you consider all S&P 500 companies, the average CEO’s total compensation is $18.9 million. Multiply that amount by all 500 companies and the grand total is $9,450,000,000 (or $9.45 billion). Splitting that amount across all U.S. workers would get you $55 per person. It’s higher, but not life-changing.

Editor’s note: Each CEO’s salary was sourced from Salary.com.

Share This Article: