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Yahoo
2 days ago
- Business
- Yahoo
The 10 highest-paid CEOs
It's no secret that CEO pay is out of control. A 2024 study from the Economic Policy Institute found that it's risen an astronomical 1,085% since 1978, compared to a paltry 24% rise in typical workers' pay. In 2023, CEOs were paid on average 290 times more than a typical worker, a stark contrast to 1965, when CEOs received about 21 times more than their average employee. On Monday, the Wall Street Journal released its annual list of the highest-paid executives. It reported a record-breaking year for CEOs, half of whom made $17.1 million or more in 2024, up $1.3 million from the year before. Continue reading to see the 10 highest-paid CEOs in 2024. Netflix (NFLX) co-CEO Greg Peters netted $60.27 million last year, a 50% boost from 2023. David Simon, CEO of the real estate investment trust Simon Property Group (SPG), took home $61.39 million last year, a 294% increase from the year before. Netflix's other co-CEO Ted Sarandos took home $61.92 million in 2024, up 24% from 2023. Scott Nuttall, co-CEO of the investment firm KKR (KKR), took home $64.20 million last year, up 36% from 2024. David Gitlin, CEO of HVAC company Carrier Global (CARR), made $65.73 million last year, up 271% from the year before. Joseph Bae, the other co-CEO of KKR, made $73.09 million, up 49% from 2023. Apple (AAPL) CEO Tim Cook took home $74.61 million in 2024, up 18% from 2023. Blackstone (BX) CEO Stephen Schwarzman made $84.03 million last year, down 30% from 2023. GE's chief executive, H. Lawrence Culp Jr., made $88.95 million last year, up 505% from 2023. Rick Smith, CEO of TASER-maker Axon Enterprise (AXON), made $164.53 million last year, up more than 999%. For the latest news, Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. Error in retrieving data Sign in to access your portfolio Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data
Irish Times
2 days ago
- Business
- Irish Times
Kenny Jacobs €374,830 salary is a soft target; the problem lies elsewhere
The yawning gap between the salaries paid to senior executives and the wages of their workers is just one of the many drivers of the discontent that permeates even apparently prosperous and stable liberal democracies such as our own. Figures for the scale of the gap are astounding. The most recent annual study carried out by the left-leaning US Economic Policy Institute found that, by 2024, US chief executive pay had grown by 1,085 per cent since 1978 compared with a 24 per cent rise in typical workers' pay. The situation in Europe is not much better. The European Trade Union Institute calculates that the chief executives of Europe's top companies are paying themselves 110 times more than the average worker. The downside to this sort of inequity is well rehearsed both at the level of individual enterprises and for society as a whole. According to the European Trade Union Institute, 'people who are dissatisfied with their pay and working conditions, and have little say over their job, are more likely to lose faith in democratic institutions'. READ MORE Unsurprisingly the Economic Policy Institute lay the blame for the apparently inexorable rise of CEO pay at the door of capitalism and particularly the stock market. The pay of the chief executive of a company listed on the stock market is usually linked to the performance of its share price, something over which, in truth, they have only limited influence. Even a mediocre chief executive will benefit from a bull market that pushes up his or her company's shares, the US think tank argues. The best paid chief executives usually have some sort of leverage over the board of the company, the members of which are supposed to ensure that shareholders are getting their money's worth, according to the Economic Policy Institute. The salaries of chief executives of these listed companies are publicly disclosed and the remuneration of a handful of rock star chief executives becomes the benchmark, both inside their organisations and also at smaller or less successful listed companies and across the wider ecosystem. Remuneration levels at publicly listed companies in turn have a trickledown effect on companies that are not listed on the stock market and, ultimately, the pay of top executives in Irish State-owned companies and bodies, a topic of perennial interest to the Irish public. Rarely will a month go by without details of the pay packet of some semi-State company boss being made public. Such transparency is healthy but the underlying presumption always seems to be that the wages are excessive and unjustifiable. This week we learned that 150 employees of the DAA – which runs Dublin and Cork Airports as well as duty-free operations at other international airports – earn more than €150,000. Not only that, the €374,830 earned by chief executive Kenny Jacobs is dwarfed by another, unnamed executive who earns between €475,000 and €500,000. It's a lot of money. The justification offered for these salaries is fundamentally a chain of relativities leading back to Elon Musk , Tim Cook and the other titans jostling for the title of the world's highest paid CEO. Ask Eamon Ryan. It was also reported this week that the former minister for transport warned his colleagues in the last government that departments and agencies needed more flexibility when it came to seeking chief executives for commercial State bodies. 'Given the sector-specific context and diversity in play, a 'one-size-fits-all' approach is not working in attracting talent, particularly when international consideration and comparators are taken into account,' he told the pay review group set up by the government last summer. The Government has indicated it will update the rules on State company remuneration to reflect market rates, It might be asking a bit much of the Irish Government to buck a 45-year trend that has seen senior executive pay increasingly divorced from reality, but they can't escape the consequences of playing along with a system that the likes of the Economic Policy Institute and the European Trade Union Institute see as little more than a confidence trick. There is a clear link in the public mind between the services offered by various State organisations and the money paid to their chief executives that doesn't exist in the commercial sector. We are their clients, their customers and in a very broad sense, their employer. We also have access to means when it comes to venting our displeasure – public representatives are only too willing to traduce the chief executives of State agencies and companies on the air, in the Dáil or anywhere else they think someone might hear them. It would be absurd to describe Irish State company chief executives as victims. They know what they signed up to. But they are a soft target and, increasingly, whipping boys for the widening gap in income between the top and bottom strata of society.
Yahoo
6 days ago
- Business
- Yahoo
Robert Reich Says 'CEO Pay Is Up 1,085% Since 1978,' Worker Pay Up Only 24%. Asks, Why Is It Always 'We Can't Afford Workers,' But Never CEOs?
Robert Reich, who served as labor secretary under President Bill Clinton, called out what he sees as a glaring contradiction in corporate America: skyrocketing CEO pay alongside stagnant wages for everyday workers. 'CEO pay is up 1,085% since 1978, while typical worker pay is up just 24%,' Reich wrote May 24 on X. 'Why do we always hear 'we can't afford to pay our workers more' but never 'we can't afford to pay our CEO more'?' Don't Miss: Deloitte's fastest-growing software company partners with Amazon, Walmart & Target – Hasbro, MGM, and Skechers trust this AI marketing firm — Reich's post drew on data from a 2024 report by the Economic Policy Institute, which shows that while CEO compensation dipped in 2023, the long-term trend is unmistakable: executive pay has exploded over the last four decades. In 2023, CEOs at the top 350 U.S. firms earned 290 times more than the average worker. That's a huge jump from 1965, when the ratio was just 21 to one. The report also found that CEO compensation has increased far faster than even the earnings of the top 0.1% of wage earners, indicating it's not just about market competition for talent. 'CEO compensation reflects substantial 'rents' (income in excess of actual productivity),' the authors wrote. Trending: Invest where it hurts — and help millions heal:. One reason for this, the report says, is that CEOs have more sway over their pay than most workers do. Their compensation is heavily tied to stock performance and negotiated with corporate boards that often lack independence. In 2023, stock-related pay made up 77.6% of total CEO compensation. Meanwhile, average worker pay has only seen a modest increase, just 24% since 1978, despite a 74.8% rise in overall productivity during that time. The EPI report says this imbalance is a key driver of income inequality. 'If very high earners hadn't pulled away so dramatically, there would be room for broader-based wage growth for the rest of the workforce,' it rein in executive pay, the report suggests policies such as raising taxes on top incomes, tying corporate tax rates to CEO-to-worker pay ratios, and giving shareholders more power to approve or reject executive compensation packages. Reich's post comes amid broader conversations about wage fairness, labor strikes, and inflation. His question touches a nerve in today's economy: why is there always money for the top, but not for the base? Read Next: Inspired by Uber and Airbnb – Deloitte's fastest-growing software company is transforming 7 billion smartphones into income-generating assets – Up Next: Transform your trading with Benzinga Edge's one-of-a-kind market trade ideas and tools. Click now to access unique insights that can set you ahead in today's competitive market. Get the latest stock analysis from Benzinga? APPLE (AAPL): Free Stock Analysis Report TESLA (TSLA): Free Stock Analysis Report This article Robert Reich Says 'CEO Pay Is Up 1,085% Since 1978,' Worker Pay Up Only 24%. Asks, Why Is It Always 'We Can't Afford Workers,' But Never CEOs? originally appeared on © 2025 Benzinga does not provide investment advice. All rights reserved. Error in retrieving data Sign in to access your portfolio Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data
Forbes
23-05-2025
- Business
- Forbes
The Richest Places In Idaho, From The Latest Census Data
Aerial panorama of the waterfront and marina of Coeur d'Alene, Idaho at twilight. The wealthiest ... More city in Idaho lies along the shores of Lake Coeur d'Alene. Idaho, like its Rocky Mountain neighbors, Montana, Wyoming, Utah, and Colorado, has changed significantly over the last 50 years. From a population of around 700,000 in 1970, by 2024 that figure had grown by 180.9%, to just over 2 million. Over the same period, the United States population grew by 67.2%. The economy of Idaho has also changed dramatically and is now far more diversified. Thus, not coincidentally, Idaho has witnessed a major increase in wealth compared to its past. According to the Economic Policy Institute (EPI), the top 1% takes home 14.9% of all income in Idaho and make 17.4 times more than the bottom 99%. Recent studies have analyzed and identified the richest cities in various states. Continuing this Rocky Mountain investigation, this study analyzed 236 cities (defined as 'places' by the Census Bureau; see below) in Idaho with complete data from the Census Bureau. This analysis analyzed them in terms of their median household income, mean (average) household income, median home value, and median property taxes paid per year, to come up with a list of the 20 richest cities in the state. Read on to find out what the richest city in Idaho is, plus the top 20 wealthiest cities in the state overall. To fully capture the wealth of these cities, this study didn't want to just look up the median household income for each one. Rather, the study sourced critical financial data from the Census Bureau's 2023 American Community Survey. Once these data points were compiled, they were scored using a four-factor system taking into account: 1) Median household income; 2) mean (average) household income; 3) median home value; 4) median property taxes paid. For certain factors, the Census numbers have upper limits, so there's no exact value for certain factors. For example, for median household income, the Census Bureau has an upper limit of '$250,000+', so no median incomes are recorded above $250,000. For median home value, the upper limit is '$2,000,000+'. For median property taxes paid, the upper limit is '$10,000+'. For these reasons, the mean household income (which is the same as average household income) dataset is very important because the Census Bureau has exact figures for it. All four of these metrics were scored, added up, and then ranked by the cities' combined scores. Another thing to go over is the Census Bureau term 'places.' The Census Bureau has a category of geographic units called Census-designated places — CDPs. The Census, more or less, treats CDPs as cities — their terminology is 'place' — and so this study will this list of the richest cities in Idaho. But if you see cities on this list that you see as, for example, neighborhoods, you're not wrong; they just are treated as cities by the Census Bureau. You'll find a table detailing the top 20 richest cities in Idaho and their associated dollar figures for each metric, below: The No. 1 richest place in Idaho in this ranking is Rockford Bay, which is a CDP, located on the western shores of Lake Coeur d'Alene. Property values are quite high here, with the median home value being $981,300. This makes the median property tax bill comparatively high, too, at $4,458. Incomes are markedly higher than the state's average. The median household income is $125,625, the second highest in Idaho. The average household income is the No. 1 highest, at $223,167. Unsurprisingly for a wealthy town, the two main occupations by employment are Management Occupations (25% of the workforce) and Business & Financial Operations Occupations (12.5% of the workforce), according to Data USA. The second richest place in Idaho is Hidden Springs, a CDP in Ada County, north of Boise and tucked into a narrow valley in the mountains (hence, 'hidden'). The top occupations by employment are Management Occupations (18.3% of the workforce), Health Diagnosing & Treating Practitioners & Other Technical Occupations (9.8% of the workforce), and Office & Administrative Support Occupations (6.9% of the workforce). The median income here is the highest in the state, at $159,439, while the average income is $199,589. Home values are very high, with the median being $683,800. Though that's $300,000 less than in Rockford Bay, the median property taxes in Hidden Springs is only a little less than the former's, $4,238 versus $4,458. Coming in as the No. 3 richest place in Idaho is Sun Valley, a resort town on Ketchum's eastern border. Sun Valley's incomes bear the hallmarks of a resort town. The median household income is comparatively low for a wealthy town, at $82,045. But the average household income is roughly double, at $162,193, which is common in resort towns because they tend to be centers of wealth inequality. Home values are, not surprisingly, very high. The median home value is $845,600, the second highest after No. 1 Rockford Bay. Interestingly, the median property taxes in Sun Valley are higher than in Rockford Bay, at $5,402 per year. According to Data USA, the main industries by employment are Professional, Scientific, & Technical Services (32.7% of the workforce), Accommodation & Food Services (14.9% of the workforce), and Educational Services (11.3% of the workforce).
Axios
22-05-2025
- Business
- Axios
Americans support unions over big companies by a record-high margin
The popularity of labor unions surged over the past decade, while American sentiment toward big business has fallen, according to new data published by the liberal Economic Policy Institute. Why it matters: The approval switcheroo helps explain, in part, why the Republican Party has been courting labor unions in recent years. Zoom in: For the past 60 years, American National Election Studies has been surveying Americans, asking them to rate their feelings toward labor unions and big business. Up until 2012, sentiment moved together, but in the recovery from the Global Financial Crisis things changed. Zoom out: After the pandemic, public support for labor unions and workers increased even more. At the same time, increasing populism meant less support for businesses, even from Republicans who typically support their interests.
