CEO-to-Worker Pay Ratios Top 500:1 at Major Hotel and Travel Companies
Many companies have said there's no standard methodology for determining the ratio for CEO-to-median employee pay, which makes direct comparisons tricky.
Rank-and-file employees at some of the United States' biggest hotel brands should expect to earn one dollar for around every $500 in compensation their CEO makes.
That's according to a Skift analysis of new filings by publicly traded travel and tourism companies that detail pay ratios between chief executives and median earners.
Hilton Worldwide Holdings (577:1), Las Vegas Sands (515:1), and Marriott International (475:1) reported the widest hotel and lodging industry gaps between the CEO and median employee, SEC filings indicate.
At Marriott, for example, CEO Anthony Capuano earned more than $21.9 million in total compensation during 2024, while a median employee earned about $42,000, according to the company's proxy statement.
'The pay ratio could vary from year to year depending on factors such as annual incentive plan payouts and compensation decisions affecting the CEO and median employee,' Marriott said in a statement to Skift.
At Hilton, CEO Christopher Nassetta earned nearly $28 million in total compensation during 2024, while a median employee earned about $48,500, according to the company's most recent proxy statement. (CEO pay is calculated in different ways. By another measure, Skift recently reported that Nassetta was awarded nearly $59 million last year.)
'Hilton offers competitive pay and benefits for all our team members and is proud of our exceptional workplace culture that has been repeatedly named among the world's best places to work and supports the professional growth of nearly a half a million team members around the world,' Hilton said in a statement to Skift.
'Hilton's CEO pay is directly tied to company performance and is competitively positioned versus our peers based on a rigorous annual benchmarking exercise conducted by the board of directors' independent compensation consultant.'
Las Vegas Sands did not respond to requests for comment.
Hyatt Hotels Corporation (351:1), Wynn Resorts (334:1), and MGM Resorts (332:1) reported narrower CEO-to-median pay ratios. The median pay at Wynn ($47,748) is slightly higher than that of MGM Resorts ($47,607) and Hyatt ($47,192).
Airline and Cruise Pay
Among airlines, United Airlines (380:1) and Delta Air Lines (258:1) led the pack in airline CEO-to-median pay gaps, according to SEC filings.
United CEO Scott Kirby's compensation of more than $33.9 million in 2024 'reflects United's extraordinary success and our turnaround from the depths of the Covid travel downturn,' United told Skift in a statement. 'His compensation increase is tied directly to specific operational and financial goals. Since 2021, United has invested more than $32 billion worldwide in modern infrastructure, cutting edge technology and nearly $10 billion alone for employee raises.'
Delta did not respond to a request for comment.
Following United and Delta are American Airlines (191:1), Alaska Airlines (119.6:1), Southwest Airlines (115.1:1), and JetBlue Airways (81:1).
Delta's median pay in 2024 led its American competitors at $105,269, followed by Southwest ($91,442), United ($89,197), JetBlue ($82,624), American ($81,744) and Alaska ($72,410), according to SEC filings.
Carnival Corp. reported a 1,381:1 ratio — but explained that the seemingly low median wage of its employees ($16,834) is not an annualized figure and 'excludes any cash gratuities paid directly to the employee by guests,' while also excluding 'room and meals, transportation to and from the ship, and medical care, which are provided to our ship-based employees without charge.'
Royal Caribbean Reported a 1,037:1 CEO-to-median pay ratio, while Norwegian Cruise Lines reported a 550:1 ratio.
Calculating CEO-to-Median Employee Pay
The CEO-to-median employee pay ratio is a relatively new calculation for publicly traded companies, a product of the post-Great Recession Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act.
The SEC adopted the rule in 2015, and companies began reporting it in 2018.
Many companies note that there's no standard methodology for determining the ratio, making direct comparisons tricky.
Among them: Booking Holdings, a company whose brands include Booking.com, Priceline, Kayak, Cheapflights, and OpenTable, reported a 466:1 ratio and $96,228 median pay.
"The pay ratio reported by other companies may not be comparable to ours because SEC rules for identifying the median employee and calculating the pay ratio allow companies to use different methodologies, apply certain exclusions, and make reasonable estimates and assumptions that reflect their compensation practices,' Booking Holdings wrote.
Airbnb's Reported Pay
Airbnb reported the lowest CEO pay ratio among major, publicly traded travel industry companies, with CEO Brian Chesky receiving less compensation in 2024 — $186,326 — than the median employee, who received $271,657.
But Airbnb is an outlier because it has a unique executive compensation plan among its competitors.
In 2020, Chesky received a stock-heavy 10-year pay package that could earn him at least $1 billion by early next decade but an annual base salary of just $1. In other words: Chesky is still primed to make a massive amount of money, even if it's not reflected in a standard CEO-to-median employee pay ratio calculation.
'The CEO pay ratio does not include the November 2020 equity award to Mr. Chesky that was intended to take the place of ten years of our CEO's compensation,' Airbnb acknowledged in an April 25 financial filing with the SEC.
In its most recent proxy statement, Airbnb also stated: 'We are committed to the principle of pay equity and seek to be a leader on this front … We want executives to come and stay with Airbnb because of our mission. However, we recognize that compensation needs to be compelling and competitive to attract and retain the talent necessary to meet our objectives.'
Other notable companies with relatively tight CEO pay ratios include Expedia Group (224:1), travel technology company Sabre Corp. (155:1), TripAdvisor (72:1), and Host Hotels & Resorts (63:1), which operates a real estate investment trust and tends to employ a larger proportion of higher wage earners relative to other hotel companies.
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