- US companies are required to publish their chief executives' annual compensation, as well as the ratio of that compensation to the annual pay of the company's median employee.
- Using those ratios, we calculated how long it took CEOs at 19 of the biggest companies in the US to make what at typical employee earned in a year.
- Several CEOs, including Disney CEO Bob Iger and Starbucks CEO Kevin Johnson, took less than a day to make a typical employee's annual salary.
- Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories .
ADVERTISEMENT
We did the math to calculate how many hours it takes America's top CEOs to make what their workers earn in one year
While it's not surprising that CEOs make a lot more money than their employees, the massive extent of that pay gap can sometimes be overlooked.
Satya Nadella Microsoft
ADVERTISEMENT
CEOs make a lot more than the workers they oversee. We took a look at just how big that gap is at some of America's biggest corporations.
One of the provisions of the post-financial-crisis Dodd-Frank reform bill requires corporations to disclose the ratio of their CEO's pay to that of the median employee at the company. Using those pay ratios, we calculated how long it would take the CEOs of big US companies to make what the median employee earned in a year.
So far, 19 of the 100 largest corporations in the S&P 500 as measured by their market capitalizations have filed their CEO compensation figures and pay ratios for the 2019 fiscal year. More companies will follow over the next several months.
ADVERTISEMENT
The gap between what a CEO makes and what a typical employee makes varies widely from company to company. Nvidia CEO Jen-Hsun Huang had a total compensation 88 times larger than the typical employee at his company, meaning it took him a little over four days to earn the median employee's annual salary. Meanwhile, Walmart CEO Doug McMillon made 1,076 times what the typical Walmart worker made, and thus earned a median Walmart employee's annual salary in just eight hours.
As with any discussion of executive compensation, it's worth noting that pay for people at the top is a bit more complicated than just getting a biweekly direct deposit . Many CEOs receive the bulk of their compensation in the form of equity in the companies they run, and so they may not realize the full value of their pay as reported to the SEC for years.
Here's the full list, along with the CEOs' fiscal year 2019 compensation, median employee pay, and the CEO to median worker pay ratio:
19. Oracle co-CEO Safra Katz took 30 days and 10 hours to earn what a typical employee did in a year.
BusinessInsider USA Images
ADVERTISEMENT
Business Insider/Julie Bort
CEO compensation: $965,981
Typical employee salary: $83,813
Ratio: 12:1
Oracle's other co-CEO Mark Hurd died in October 2019 .
ADVERTISEMENT
18. Nvidia CEO Jen-Hsun Huang took 4 days and 4 hours to earn what a typical employee made in a year.
BusinessInsider USA Images
AP Photo / Paul Sakuma
CEO compensation: $13,642,838
Typical employee salary: $155,035
ADVERTISEMENT
Ratio: 88:1
17. Intuit CEO Sasan Goodarzi took 3 days and 5 hours to earn what a typical employee made in a year.
BusinessInsider USA Images
Courtesy of Intuit
CEO compensation: $17,933,345
ADVERTISEMENT
Typical employee salary: $157,232
Ratio: 114:1
Intuit noted in their proxy statement that Goodarzi's compensation reflects annualized pay.
16. Costco CEO W. Craig Jelinek took 2 days and 4 hours to earn what a typical employee made in a year.
BusinessInsider USA Images
ADVERTISEMENT
AP Photo/Nati Harnik
CEO compensation: $8,016,200
Typical employee salary: $47,312
Ratio: 169:1
15. Visa CEO Alfred F. Kelly Jr. took 2 days and 4 hours to earn what a typical employee made in a year.
ADVERTISEMENT
BusinessInsider USA Images
AP Photo/Mark Lennihan
CEO compensation: $24,265,771
Typical employee salary: $142,494
Ratio: 170:1
ADVERTISEMENT
14. Cisco Systems CEO Chuck Robbins took 2 days to earn what a typical employee made in a year.
BusinessInsider USA Images
AP Images
CEO compensation: $25,829,833
Typical employee salary: $142,593
ADVERTISEMENT
Ratio: 181:1
13. Salesforce co-CEO Marc Benioff took 1 day and 23 hours to earn what a typical employee made in a year.
BusinessInsider USA Images
REUTERS/Noah Berger
CEO compensation: $28,391,846
ADVERTISEMENT
Typical employee salary: $151,955
Ratio: 187:1
Salesforce's other co-CEO Keith Block made $16,961,156 in 2019, meaning it took him 3 days, 6 hours to make what a typical employee did in a year.
12. Apple CEO Tim Cook took 1 day and 20 hours to earn what a typical employee made in a year.
BusinessInsider USA Images
ADVERTISEMENT
Getty
CEO compensation: $11,555,466
Typical employee salary: $57,596
Ratio: 201:1
11. Medtronic CEO Omar Ishrak took 1 day and 13 hours to earn what a typical employee made in a year.
ADVERTISEMENT
BusinessInsider USA Images
Reuters/Steve Marcus
CEO compensation: $17,796,325
Typical employee salary: $74,206
Ratio: 240:1
ADVERTISEMENT
10. Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella took 1 day and 11 hours to earn what a typical employee made in a year.
BusinessInsider USA Images
AP Photo/Mark Lennihan
CEO compensation: $42,910,215
Typical employee salary: $172,512
ADVERTISEMENT
Ratio: 249:1
9. Qualcomm CEO Steve Mollenkopf took 1 day and 10 hours to earn what a typical employee made in a year.
BusinessInsider USA Images
Reuters/Rick Wilking
CEO compensation: $23,065,052
ADVERTISEMENT
Typical employee salary: $90,259
Ratio: 256:1
8. ADP CEO Carlos Rodriguez took 1 day and 5 hours to earn what a typical employee made in a year.
BusinessInsider USA Images
CNBC Video
ADVERTISEMENT
CEO compensation: $19,000,187
Typical employee salary: $63,225
Ratio: 301:1
7. Former Nike CEO Mark G. Parker took 15 hours and 56 minutes to earn what a typical employee made in a year.
BusinessInsider USA Images
ADVERTISEMENT
AP/Rick Bowmer
CEO compensation: $13,968,022
Typical employee salary: $25,386
Ratio: 550:1
Note: Parker stepped down as Nike CEO in January 2020 and was succeeded by John Donahoe.
ADVERTISEMENT
6. Este Lauder CEO Fabrizio Freda took 12 hours and 34 minutes to earn what a typical employee made in a year.
BusinessInsider USA Images
Patrick McMullan/Getty Images
CEO compensation: $21,435,428
Typical employee salary: $30,733
ADVERTISEMENT
Ratio: 697:1
5. Former Accenture Interim CEO David P. Rowland took 10 hours and 43 minutes to earn what a typical employee made in a year.
BusinessInsider USA Images
Reuters
CEO compensation: $15,031,875
ADVERTISEMENT
Typical employee salary: $18,392
Ratio: 817:1
Note: Rowland stepped down as CEO in September 2019 and was succeeded by Julie Sweet. Accenture also provided an alternate estimate of the CEO pay ratio based on a cost-of-living adjustment, as their median employee was based in India. Using that estimate, the ratio was 298:1, and Rowland would have made what the median employee did in 1 day, 5 hours.
4. Disney CEO Bob Iger took 9 hours and 37 minutes to earn what a typical employee made in a year.
BusinessInsider USA Images
ADVERTISEMENT
Photo by Kimberly White/Getty Images for Vanity Fair
CEO compensation: $47,517,762
Typical employee salary: $52,184
Ratio: 911:1
3. Walmart CEO Doug McMillon took 8 hours and 8 minutes to earn what a typical employee made in a year.
ADVERTISEMENT
BusinessInsider USA Images
Reuters/Ray Stubblebine
CEO compensation: $23,618,233
Typical employee salary: $21,952
Ratio: 1,076:1
ADVERTISEMENT
2. TJX CEO Ernie Herrman took 5 hours and 29 minutes to earn what a typical employee made in a year.
BusinessInsider USA Images
Stephen Lovekin/Getty Images
CEO compensation: $18,822,770
Typical employee salary: $11,791
ADVERTISEMENT
Ratio: 1,596:1
1. Starbucks CEO Kevin Johnson took 5 hours and 14 minutes to earn what a typical employee made in a year.
BusinessInsider USA Images
Joshua Trujillo, Starbucks
CEO compensation: $19,241,950
ADVERTISEMENT
Typical employee salary: $11,489
Ratio: 1,675:1
See Also:
- The most insidious type of cheating isn't physical. Here are 11 signs your partner could be guilty.
- Having different love languages can cause relationship problems, according to a psychologist. Here's how to use them to strengthen your relationship.
- The 10 US states where women have the best chances of growing a business and getting the funding they need, ranked
SEE ALSO: INEQUALITY IN AMERICA: 6 charts that show how much more wealth the 1% have over everyone else
FOLLOW BUSINESS INSIDER AFRICA
ADVERTISEMENT
Recommended articles
The CBN justifies $2b billion loss in forex, dispelling Naira defense claims
10 best airports in Africa in 2024
10 most expensive cities in Africa in 2024
Illegal money changers adapt to Zimbabwe's ZiG currency rollout
Zimbabwe's ZiG currency printing contingent on reserve sufficiency
The global workforce is set to collapse without Africa
500 millionaires fall off in Kenya - here’s why
Top 10 African countries with the most centi-millionaires in 2024