We now live in a world where the CEO of a major corporation makes 2.5 million times more money than an average worker of the same company.
The pay gap between CEOs of S&P 500 companies and the median workers of the same companies has never been wider than last year, but that’s before taking Tesla’s Elon Musk into account.
His $158 billion compensation package means that he made as much money last year as 2,522,203 average Tesla workers; of course, those are hypothetical Tesla workers as the EV maker only employed almost 135,000 people in 2025.
Musk’s $158 Billion Pay Deal “Broke The CEO Pay Curve”
The shocking pay gap is singled out in the annual Executive Paywatch published by AFL-CIO, the largest labor union federation in the United States. Every year, the organization compiles a report on CEO pay tracking S&P 500 companies, and the latest one is suggestively titled “CEO’s Rigged Economy.”
The report notes that Musk “broke the CEO pay curve” as his compensation was “14 times higher than the total compensation of all other S&P 500 company CEOs combined.”
Musk’s ridiculous pay deal actually distorted the 2025 Executive Paywatch. Including Musk, S&P 500 CEOs received $340.1 million on average in 2025, accounting for a 1,700% increase over the previous year. Without Musk, the average CEO pay at S&P 500 companies increased 21%, from $18.9 million in 2024 to $22.8 million in 2025.
Furthermore, with Musk included, the average CEO-to-worker pay ratio across S&P 500 Index companies was a shocking 5,387-to-1 in 2025. Excluding Musk, the average pay ratio of S&P 500 companies was 312-to-1 in 2025, up from 285-to-1 in 2024.
Musk Earned $48.7 Million Per Hour Worked In 2025—Or $13,535 Per Second!
AFL-CIO also calculated that Elon Musk was paid $48.7 million per hour worked in 2025, or $13,535 per second! “At this rate, it would take Musk 4.23 seconds to earn the 2025 annual pay of Tesla’s median employee,” the federation wrote in the report; Tesla’s average worker made $57,243 in 2025.
Want more astounding stats? Musk’s $158.3 billion compensation package is more than the value of all products sold by Tesla in 2025, and 41 times more than Tesla’s net income that same year!
Speaking of which, Tesla reported owing $0 in 2025 U.S. federal income tax on $5.68 billion in adjusted income, thanks to a number of tax breaks, including those signed into law by U.S. President Donald Trump in 2025.
Interestingly, the report also includes President Trump, who had a very good year in 2025. He received $2.2 billion in income in 2025 mostly from the sale of cryptocurrency, according to federal disclosure forms. That’s a nearly 254% increase from what he made in 2024.
