world\u2019s first trillionaire<\/a>.<\/p>\nIncluding Musk, on average, the pay for a chief executive in an S&P 500 company jumped 1,700 percent last year to reach $3.1bn.<\/p>\n
Excluding Musk, the increase was slightly more modest. Whereas in 2024 the average CEO pay was roughly $19m, in 2025 the figure increased by 21 percent to $22.8m.<\/p>\n
That sum is\u00a0nearly double the average compensation package for chief executives a decade ago.<\/p>\n
Uneven distribution across industries<\/p>\n
Different industries, however, saw varying ratios in executive-to-worker income.<\/p>\n
The biggest pay disparity was in the manufacturing sector, with the average CEO making $696m and the average worker in the industry making slightly more than $93,000.<\/p>\n
That amounted to a more-than-11,000 percent difference in their salaries. Tesla marks the biggest disparity in the sector, helping to drive the pay ratio higher.<\/p>\n
The industry with the second-highest pay ratio was the arts, entertainment and recreation sector, where executives make an average of $24.6m, compared to an average of around $25,000 for median workers. The difference was a ratio of 1,057 to one.<\/p>\n
One of the most stark examples of a pay divide was the coffee chain Starbucks, where the average worker made $17,279 \u2014 only $1,629 higher than the federal poverty line in 2025.<\/p>\n
With CEO Brian Niccol earning north of $30m last year, experts estimate the pay ratio in the company is 1,794 to one.<\/p>\n
The AFL-CIO\u2019s report also showed that Amazon, Dollar Tree, FedEx, McDonald\u2019s and Walmart workers are the largest recipients of social assistance programmes.<\/p>\n
Amazon CEO Andy Jassy made 51 times more than the company\u2019s average employee, while McDonald\u2019s CEO Chris Kempczinski made 1,082 times more than the average worker at the Chicago, Illinois-based fast-food giant.<\/p>\n
Trump posts surge in earnings<\/p>\n
Thursday\u2019s report also examined Trump\u2019s income during the first year of his second term in office.<\/p>\n
Trump\u2019s campaigns for public office have largely hinged on his record as a businessman, and he has pitched himself to voters as uniquely qualified to address the country\u2019s economic needs.<\/p>\n
But critics have accused him of profiting from the presidency, whether through trademarks or policies favourable to his business interests, including cryptocurrency.<\/p>\n
The AFL-CIO report found that Trump\u2019s income surged 254 percent last year, over what he made in 2024, before his return to the White House.<\/p>\n
The\u00a0$2.2bn worth of income he earned in 2025 stemmed largely from World Liberty Financial, the Trump family\u2019s cryptocurrency venture, and the sale of meme coins.<\/p>\n
Those earnings are roughly 43,154 times what the median US worker made last year, according to the AFL-CIO. Approximately 37 percent of US adults cannot cover a $400 emergency expense.<\/p>\n
This comes as US consumer sentiment slipped 8 percent, with consumers growing more wary of business conditions and the strength of their personal finances, according to a report from the University of Michigan released on Friday.<\/p>\n
The labour market is also experiencing a downturn, with the US economy shedding 23,000 jobs in July<\/a>, according to a monthly report from the US Department of Labor\u2019s Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS).<\/p>\nThe Conference Board, a nonprofit think tank focused on the economy, also found last month that\u00a0confidence in the state of the US economy is trending downward for the third consecutive month.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The pay gap between executives and their employees has widened from 2024 to 2025, with chief executives making…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":637484,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[174],"tags":[79,3426,356,179,18,1647,10847,19,29304,17,5,790,384,3430],"class_list":["post-637483","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-economy","tag-business","tag-business-and-economy","tag-donald-trump","tag-economy","tag-eire","tag-elon-musk","tag-financial-markets","tag-ie","tag-inequality","tag-ireland","tag-news","tag-politics","tag-united-states","tag-us-canada"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@ie\/117095820935192250","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/637483","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=637483"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/637483\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/637484"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=637483"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=637483"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=637483"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}