CEO Pay Is Skyrocketing. Meet the 8 Leaders Making Over $100 Million

The Wall Street Journal just released its annual CEO pay analysis, and the data shows a clear rebound in payouts following a post-2021 slump. Notably, more CEOs made $100 million or more in 2025 than in any year since then.

Eight chief execs at S&P 500 companies hit a nine-figure payout, including a few names you’ve probably heard of: Warner Bros. Discovery’s David Zaslav came in fifth with $165 million in total pay, Blackstone’s Stephen Schwarzman hit sixth with $126 million and Goldman Sachs’ David Solomon scored seventh at $119 million. READ MORE

CEO Compensation Trends: Record Highs in 2025

On June 23, 2026, the landscape of executive compensation in the U.S. has seen a significant shift, with over 12 CEOs surpassing $200 million in annual pay, marking a record high since 2021. Among these, Shankh Mitra of Welltower Inc WELL stands out with a staggering compensation package of $821 million, primarily in stock awards. This trend raises questions about the alignment of executive pay with investor returns and the overall health of corporate governance. READ MORE

CEO Compensation Is Up for 2026

Compensation Advisory Partners (CAP) recently released a report, titled “Early Filers: CEO Compensation Up; Bonus Payout at Target,” that reviewed CEO pay levels among 50 companies with fiscal years ending between August and October 2025 (defined as the early filers). According to the report’s findings, 2025 financial performance was generally flat to up, which resulted in median bonus payouts of around target. Total compensation for the CEO was up more than 8% due to an increase in the grant date value of long-term incentives (LTIs). READ MORE

New York Times 100 Highest-Paid CEOs

It pays to be a CEO in America. Running a major U.S. corporation carries the intense responsibility of guiding an organization through market disruptions while maintaining financial growth. For CEOs, this pressure comes with lucrative pay packages. The median compensation for the 100 highest-paid chief executive officers in America reached $39.4 million in 2025, marking a 35.8% year-over-year increase.

For 19 years, Equilar and The New York Times  have partnered to analyze trends in CEO compensation across corporate America. The Times  recently published coverage of new findings from the annual study, highlighting a steep trajectory in corner-office pay. For the purposes of this post, Equilar analyzed just a portion of the findings provided to The New York Times. This post examines the 100 largest CEO pay packages among U.S. public companies with revenues of at least $1 billion and that filed a proxy statement by April 30, 2026 READ MORE

How Elon Musk is redefining executive compensation

CEO pay packages have reached extraordinary levels, and Elon Musk stands far above everyone else with a compensation package valued at roughly $132 billion, The New York Times reports.

Musk’s compensation is almost entirely stock-based rather than salary or cash bonuses, receiving shares only if Tesla achieves a series of ambitious long-term performance targets tied to company value, vehicle production, autonomous driving initiatives and robotics projects. READ MORE

Median pay for CEOs rose nearly 6% in 2025, but some compensation packages were eye-popping

The typical CEO compensation package rose nearly 6% in 2025 to $17.7 million, as company boards rewarded their top executives for bigger profits and higher stock prices, and gave them incentives to stick around and make even more money for shareholders.

The median employee at companies in the S&P 500 earned $89,744, reflecting a 4.7% increase year over year. While that gain outpaced the rate of inflation in 2025, many workers were still feeling pinched by the accumulation of higher prices over the past few years and had to cut corners to make ends meet and run up credit card debt to pay for everyday necessities. READ MORE

CEO pay ratio tax bill may gain new life in Congress as revenue stream

Corporate executive compensation, in particular the pay ratio compared with rank-and-file employees, has resurfaced as a U.S. Senate Democratic revenue initiative.

A group of progressive Democratic senators, led by Bernie Sanders of Vermont and Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts, introduced the Tax Excessive CEO Pay Act in March. A similar proposal has been submitted in the U.S. House. READ MORE

CEOs promised to take pay cuts during the pandemic. Did they?

When the pandemic struck last year, many CEOs across the globe announced they’d cut their own salaries. Now that we’re 17 months into this crisis, it prompts the question: Did business leaders go through with this pledge? While the COVID-19 recession was among the hardest initial economic shocks ever experienced, it was also followed by one of the fastest economic recoveries on record. Some businesses even boomed during the pandemic.

To see how many companies followed through on their leadership pay cuts, Fortune partnered with Diligent, a leading New York–based SaaS GRC (governance, risk, and compliance) company. For the analysis, Diligent looked at Russell 3000 companies—an index of the largest 3,000 U.S. companies by market capitalization. READ MORE