Chief Executive Officers

Chief executives of publicly held companies are expected to generate strong financial profits for shareholders. As a result, CEOs of high-performing companies receive extremely lucrative compensation. In 2023, CEOs of the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index companies received, on average, $17.7 million in total compensation, according to the AFL-CIO’s analysis of data of 500 companies with available pay data.

Not every CEO heads a major corporation. Many work at smaller companies and organizations that do not offer as high compensation as Fortune 500 companies do. The U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) reports that the bottom 10 percent of CEOs earned $80,000 or less per year in May 2023. The mean annual salary for CEOs was $206,680. Salaries also vary by industry. The DOL reports that chief executives earned the following mean annual salaries by industry:

• spectator sports: $735,020
• health and personal care retailers: $630,750
• motion picture and video industries: $513,800
• computer systems design and related services: $249,860

Some CEOs accept little or no salary, but are compensated through lucrative stock options. At top companies, stock option payoffs can be astronomical. For example, Stephen Schwarzman, the CEO of Blackstone, has a base salary of $350,000 in 2022, but received more than $253 million in stocks, awards, and incentives, according to the Wall Street Journal. Stephen Scherr, the CEO of Hertz until 2024, received a salary of $1.27 million in 2022, but an additional $182 million company stocks and options.

Benefits for CEOs are excellent, and often include bonuses, stock awards, company-paid insurance premiums, use of company cars and airplanes, paid country-club memberships, expense accounts, and generous retirement benefits.