The Highest-Paid CEOs in the U.S.

The combined earnings of these leaders equal the GDP of a small country.

The Highest-Paid CEOs in the U.S.

The 25 highest-paid CEOs in the U.S. last year brought home more money than a year prior, and the pay ratio between them and the median earners in their employ is stark. And it’s not just among the top dog, Elon Musk. The Tesla CEO did, however, obliterate the competition when it comes to compensation and pay ratio.

Musk enjoyed a 4,575,310 percent pay increase from the year before, thanks to an incentive-laden contract he signed with Tesla. Perhaps more insane than that figure is the $40,668 he earned for every $1 paid out to someone making the company median. And that’s for leading an electric vehicle maker that, due to its leader’s eccentricities, terrifies Wall Street.

The information for this story was sourced from Equilar, a data analytics provider that works with The New York Times on an annual report about CEO compensation.

25. Shantanu Narayen

Company: Adobe

Total pay: $28,397,528

Year-over-year change: +29 percent

Pay ratio of CEO to median employee: 200:1

Median pay: $142,192

The longtime tech executive has been CEO of Adobe since 2005. His most notable achievement as CEO was moving the company’s popular software properties from the desktop to the cloud.

24. Brian L. Roberts

Company: Comcast

Total pay: $29,330,869

Year-over-year change: +7 percent

Pay ratio of CEO to median employee: 426:1

Median pay: $82,205

Roberts has been the internet and cable provider’s CEO since 2002 and its president since 1990. When he was named president, the company reported $657 million in annual revenue. Its annual revenue has since grown to $94.5 billion.

23. Howard W. Lutnick

Company: BGC Partners

Total pay: $29,694,152

Year-over-year change: +89 percent

Pay ratio of CEO to median employee: 284:1

Median pay: $104,487

In 2004, BGC Partners split off from Cantor Fitzgerald — where Lutnick has been CEO since 1991 — to form its own entity. Since then he has served as dual CEO. Lutnick is most known for his charity efforts following 9/11 in which Cantor Fitzgerald lost 658 employees. The Cantor Fitzgerald Relief Fund has raised more than $100 million for charities since the terrorist attacks.

22. Jamie Dimon

Company: JPMorgan Chase

Total pay: $30,019,840

Year-over-year change: +6 percent

Pay ratio of CEO to median employee: 381:1

Median pay: $78,923

Considered one of the most influential people in the world, Dimon has been CEO of the nation’s largest bank since 2004. He’s drawn criticism for both his earnings following the 2008 global recession and for accepting funds from the TARP bailout even though JPMorgan Chase did not need them. The latter move was reportedly done to encourage smaller institutions to accept the money.

21. Bobby Kotick

Company: Activision Blizzard

Total pay: $30,841,004

Year-over-year change: +7 percent

Pay ratio: 319:1

Median pay: $96,726

Kotick had been CEO of Activision since 1991 when he engineered its merger with Blizzard and became CEO of the new video game company in 2008. Among its major titles are “Call of Duty,” “Guitar Hero” and “Tony Hawk's Pro Skater.”

20. Brian Niccol

Company: Chipotle Mexican Grill

Total pay: $33,520,940

Year-over-year change: n/a

Pay ratio of CEO to median employee: 2,450:1

Median pay: $13,779

The longtime chain restaurant executive took over as CEO of Chipotle in early 2018. CNN named him CEO of the Year in 2018 for his efforts to turn around a struggling company that was reeling from an E. coli outbreak and several norovirus incidents in recent years.

19. Jeff Storey

Company: CenturyLink

Total pay: $35,655,646

Year-over-year change: n/a

Pay ratio of CEO to median employee: 527:1

Median pay: $68,674

Storey became CEO of the internet service provider in mid-2018. Prior to that he led Level 3 Communications, which was acquired by CenturyLink in 2017. Storey has been buying stock in the company throughout 2019 in what he calls a sign of his belief in the business.

18. Reed Hastings

Company: Netflix

Total pay: $36,080,417

Year-over-year change: +48 percent

Pay ratio of CEO to median employee: 178:1

Median pay: $202,335

Hastings co-founded Netflix in 1997 and has been its CEO ever since. The company has revolutionized the entertainment industry, first through its mail-order DVD service and more recently as a major film and television producer for the largest streaming service in the U.S.

17. Dan Schulman

Company: PayPal

Total pay: $37,764,588

Year-over-year change: +96 percent

Pay ratio of CEO to median employee: 543:1

Median pay: $69,600

Sitting at the helm of PayPal since 2014, Schulman is one of the most well-regarded business executives in the world. His accomplishments with PayPal include partnering with Walmart to allow for deposits and withdrawals at any of the chains 4,700 U.S. stores; acquiring iZettle for $2.2 billion; and investing $500 million in Uber during its 2019 IPO.

16. Paul C. Saville

Company: NVR

Total pay: $39,134,164

Year-over-year change: +1,006 percent

Pay ratio of CEO to median employee: 617:1

Median pay: $63,456

Saville has led the homebuilding and mortgage company since 2005. In 2019, Saville sold some of his shares back to the company in a repurchase program that indicates the board of directors thinks the stock is undervalued.

15. Joseph M. Hogan

Company: Align Technology

Total pay: $41,758,338

Year-over-year change: +256 percent

Pay ratio of CEO to median employee: 3,168:1

Median pay: $13,180

In his five years as CEO, Align Technology has experienced an average annual growth of more than 20 percent, putting its market cap at $28.15 billion. The company specializes in dental and orthodontic equipment and dental records storage.

14. Stephen P. MacMillan

Company: Hologic

Total pay: $42,040,142

Year-over-year change: +275 percent

Pay ratio of CEO to median employee: 478:1

Median pay: $87,845

MacMillan has been CEO of the medical device and diagnostic manufacturer since 2013, and he’s credited with bringing aboard important executives and overseeing a solid growth period. In 2017, the company created a “performance-based retention equity grant” for MacMillan as a rival was trying to pry him from the company.

13. Lewis L. Bird III

Company: At Home Group

Total pay: $43,089,790

Year-over-year change: +2,477 percent

Pay ratio of CEO to median employee: n/a

Median pay: n/a

Since joining the company as CEO in 2012, Bird has grown At Home’s retail footprint from 58 stores to more than 100. He’s also credited with transforming the company culture and instituting employee-friendly measures such as paid parental leave and 401(k) plans.

12. James Murdoch

Company: Twenty-First Century Fox

Total pay: $44,415,365

Year-over-year change: +125 percent

Pay ratio of CEO to median employee: 741:1

Median pay: $67,809

Murdoch took over as CEO from his father, media mogul Rupert Murdoch, in 2015. However, the elder Murdoch put much of the company up for sale in 2018 and Disney acquired it for $72 billion in 2019. James Murdoch is now setting up a family office as he stands to gain considerable wealth from the sale and from inheritance.

11. Richard B. Handler

Company: Jefferies Financial Group

Total pay: $44,674,213

Year-over-year change: +105 percent

Pay ratio of CEO to median employee: 298:1

Median pay: $150,000

After joining the investment bank and financial services company in 1990, Handler became CEO in 2001. In a two-decade period from 1990 to 2012, Jefferies shares compounded annually at 22 percent.

10. Vivek Shah

Company: j2 Global

Total pay: $45,062,153

Year-over-year change: n/a

Pay ratio of CEO to median employee: 565:1

Median pay: $79,824

Shah leads a company whose brands include PCMag, Mashable and Speedtest by Ookla, and he’s credited with turning around a failing enterprise through acquisitions and workforce shrinkage after joining j2 in early 2018.

9. Fabrizio Freda

Company: Estée Lauder

Total pay: $48,164,302

Year-over-year change: +162 percent

Pay ratio of CEO to median employee: 1,690:1

Median pay: $28,845

The company has reported record sales and profitable growth since Freda became CEO in 2009, reversing a five-year decline at the time. Freda is credited with being a visionary in the beauty marketplace and repositioning Estée Lauder as a desirable brand, especially with younger generations.

8. James Heppelmann

Company: PTC

Total pay: $49,969,163

Year-over-year change: +357 percent

Pay ratio of CEO to median employee: 647:1

Median pay: $77,181

Heppelmann has been at the helm of PTC since 2010. The software company originally developed computer-aided design products but Heppelmann helped PTC branch out into Internet of Things and augmented reality. He’s often regarded as one of the top business leaders in IoT software.

7. Robert Iger

Company: Disney

Total pay: $65,645,214

Year-over-year change: +81 percent

Pay ratio of CEO to median employee: 1,424:1

Median pay: $46,127

Lauded as one of the world’s top business executives and most powerful people, Iger has been on Disney’s senior management team since 1996 and its CEO since 2005. In that time, the media company has acquired Pixar, Marvel, Lucasfilm and 21st Century Fox; opened Shanghai Disney Resort, its first theme park in mainland China; and created ESPN+ and the upcoming Disney+ streaming services.

6. John Legere

Company: T-Mobile US

Total pay: $66,538,206

Year-over-year change: +182 percent

Pay ratio of CEO to median employee: 1,116:1

Median pay: $59,653

The eccentric and veteran telecom executive has served as CEO since 2012 and is credited with spearheading the carrier’s contract-free wireless networks, which T-Mobile calls “Un-carrier.” That move propelled T-Mobile from a struggling company to the third-largest and fastest-growing carrier in the U.S.

5. Safra A. Catz

Company: Oracle

Total pay: $108,282,333

Year-over-year change: +166 percent

Pay ratio of CEO to median employee: 1,205:1

Median pay: $89,887

Along with Mark Hurd, Catz has been co-CEO of Oracle since founder Larry Ellison stepped down in 2014. She has been a company executive since 1999 and a board member since 2001. Catz led the 2005 takeover of rival PeopleSoft, and she is the highest paid female CEO in the U.S.

4. Mark Hurd

Company: Oracle

Total pay: $108,295,023

Year-over-year change: +165 percent

Pay ratio of CEO to median employee: 1,205:1

Median pay: $89,887

Hurd leads corporate direction and strategy for Oracle, which he joined in 2010. The accomplished business executive with decades of leadership experience became co-CEO in 2014. Since then he has increased the company’s sales team by thousands and overseen massive growth in the company’s cloud offerings.

3. Nikesh Arora

Company: Palo Alto Networks

Total pay: $125,068,836

Year-over-year change: n/a

Pay ratio of CEO to median employee: 64:1

Median pay: $223,885

The former Google executive accepted the leadership position at the 14-year-old cybersecurity company in June 2018. Arora vowed to make the company profitable through investing and strategic acquisitions. PAN is making progress on both ends.

2. David Zaslav

Company: Discovery

Total pay: $129,499,005

Year-over-year change: +207 percent

Pay ratio of CEO to median employee: 1,511:1

Median pay: $85,704

Zaslav is tasked with keeping the company’s TV and digital operations on target. Under his tutelage, Discovery last made the Fortune 500 in 2014. Zaslav has been leading the company since it went public in 2008.

1. Elon Musk

Company: Tesla

Total pay: $2,284,044,884

Year-over-year change: +4,575,310 percent

Pay ratio of CEO to median employee: 40,668:1

Median pay: $56,163

Musk, who’s also the co-founder of Tesla, made more money in 2018 than the next 65 CEOs on Equilar’s list. His pay is largely tied to performance metrics. The company, which debuted in 2003, makes electric vehicles and its first one went to market in 2008.