07/24/2025
AFL-CIO Executive Paywatch
Guess how much more the nation’s top CEOs made compared to their workers last year.
Twenty times more? Fifty times more? One hundred times more
Nope, the average S&P 500 CEO made 285 times what the median worker made in 2024—a whopping $18.9 million each in total compensation on average.
Check out the AFL-CIO’s annual Executive Paywatch report to see how much your CEO took home last year.
As if this vast inequality wasn’t bad enough—at a time when workers are struggling to pay our bills, President Trump just handed America’s CEOs another massive tax break.
And we all know how Trump is paying for this gift to billionaires like Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos and Mark Zuckerberg: by making gigantic cuts to Medicaid, food assistance and other services we need—cuts that will slash hundreds of thousands of jobs in our communities.
The CEOs listed in our Executive Paywatch report will be able to skip out on paying a combined $738 million in income taxes, thanks to the big, ugly budget reconciliation bill. How does that break down for workers?
That money could pay for:
Medicaid health care for 81,028 working people;
SNAP food assistance for 328,877 working families; or
School lunches for 925,508 students.
Read our 2025 Executive Paywatch report to see the numbers for yourself.
During the peak of union membership in 1965, the CEO-to-worker pay ratio was just 21-to-1. If we want to level the playing field and make sure workers earn our fair share, everyone needs the opportunity to join a union.
Read our 2025 Executive Paywatch report to learn more about how the wealthiest CEOs in America are profiting from the Trump administration’s policies. And help us give working people the facts on how corporate greed is causing this tremendous inequality by sharing our Paywatch numbers with your friends and co-workers. Our solidarity is our strength.
In solidarity,
Team AFL-CIO
