Chief executives of publicly held companies are expected to generate strong financial profits for shareholders. As a result, CEOs of high-performing companies receive extremely lucrative compensation. In June 2019, CEOs of the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index companies received, on average, $14.5 million in total compensation, according to the AFL-CIO’s analysis of data of 497 companies with available pay data.

Not every CEO heads a major corporation. Many work at smaller companies and organizations that do not offer as high compensation as Fortune 500 companies do. The U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) reports that the bottom 10 percent of CEOs earned $68,360 or less per year in May 2018. The mean annual salary for CEOs was $200,140. Salaries also vary by industry. The DOL reports that chief executives earned the following median annual salaries by industry:

Manufacturing: $208,000 or more
Professional, scientific, and technical services: $208,000 or more
Healthcare and social assistance: $173,770
Government: $110,830.

Some CEOs accept little or no salary, but are compensated through lucrative stock options. At top companies, stock option payoffs can be astronomical. For example, David M. Zaslav, the CEO of Discovery Inc. has a base salary of $3 million in 2018, but received more than $100 million in stocks, awards, and incentives. Arthur L. Peck, the CEO of The Gap Inc. received a salary of $1.5 million in 2018, but an additional $20.8 million company stocks and options.

Benefits for CEOs are excellent, and often include bonuses, stock awards, company-paid insurance premiums, use of company cars and airplanes, paid country-club memberships, expense accounts, and generous retirement benefits.

Chief Executive Officers

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