CEO pay dipped in 2023 but remains enormous compared with the pay of other workers. According to a study by the Economic Policy Institute, from 1978–2023, top CEO compensation shot up 1,085%, compared with a 24% increase in a typical worker’s compensation.
In 2023, CEOs were paid 290 times as much as a typical worker—in contrast to 1965, when they were paid 21 times as much as a typical worker.
That CEOs were paid nearly 10 times as much as the top 0.1% of U.S. wage earners in 2022 illustrates just how distorted CEO pay increases have become.
CEO pay is linked strongly to the stock market—but in 2023, the stock market held fairly steady, while there was an uncharacteristic dip in CEO pay.
—By Josh Bivens, Elise Gould and Jori Kandra