A new analysis reveals a widening pay gap between CEOs and workers at America’s lowest-paying large corporations, with executive compensation surging nearly twice as fast as median worker earnings over the past six years. According to the Institute for Policy Studies, the average CEO at these firms earned 614 times more than their typical employee last year, underscoring persistent income disparities even among companies with lower-than-average wages. The report highlights how CEO pay grew 41.4%—outpacing the 20.7% rise in worker compensation—raising questions about corporate wage policies amid economic shifts. The findings focus specifically on the 100 S&P 500 companies with the smallest median worker paychecks.
Analysis by Institute for Policy Studies found that between 2019 and 2025, CEO compensation increased 41.4%The average CEO of the US’s 100 largest, lowest-paying corporations earned 614 times more than their average worker last year, according to an analysis by the Institute for Policy Studies (IPS).IPS’s latest executive excess report analyzed compensation at the 100 S&P 500 corporations with the lowest median worker pay. Between 2019 and 2025, CEO compensation increased 41.4%, unadjusted for inflation, twice as much as the median worker pay increased at these firms during the same period, at 20.7%. Continue reading...
