In the U.S., the median worker's salary for the first quarter of 2022 was $1,037 per week, or about $54,000 per year. By contrast, the country's eight highest-paid chief executive officers (CEOs) earn several times more than that every single day. Even more shocking is that the CEO at the top of the list, Elon Musk, earned almost $54,000 in every minute of the 40-hour workweek in 2020.
The table below highlights eight highly compensated top CEOs in 2020, along with where they work and how much they get paid (figures for 2021 are expected to be released in August).
| Rank | Name | Company | Total Annual Compensation (2020) |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1. | Elon Musk | Tesla (NASDAQ:TSLA) | $6.65 billion |
| 2. | Mike Pykosz | Oak Street Health (NYSE:OSH) | $568 million |
| 3. | Trevor Bezdek (co-CEO) | GoodRx Holdings (NASDAQ:GDRX) | $497 million |
| 4. | Douglas Hirsch (co-CEO) | GoodRx Holdings (NASDAQ:GDRX) | $497 million |
| 5. | Eric Wu | Opendoor Technologies (NASDAQ:OPEN) | $388 million |
| 6. | Alex Karp | Palantir Technologies (NYSE:PLTR) | $369 million |
| 7. | Tim Cook | Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) | $265 million |
| 8. | Chad Richison | Paycom Software (NYSE:PAYC) | $220 million |
1. Elon Musk: $6.65 billion
Musk is the quirky CEO of electric car company Tesla, although he's made more headlines recently for his ongoing attempt to buy social media company Twitter (NYSE:TWTR). Musk's 2020 compensation from Tesla totaled more than $6.6 billion.
Musk has been the top-earning U.S. executive for three years running even though he does not collect a salary from Tesla. Instead, he earns stock options when the company reaches certain market capitalization and growth milestones. The options allow Musk to buy Tesla stock -- which traded at almost $1,200 per share at the beginning of January 2022 before falling to $700 by summer -- for an unbelievable $70 per share.
The performance-based arrangement has been a sweet deal for Musk, whose net worth of $219 billion earns him the title of world's richest man.
2. Mike Pykosz: $568 million
Pykosz is the chief executive at Oak Street Health, which operates primary care facilities for seniors on Medicare.
In 2020, Oak Street Health granted Pykosz stock and option awards associated with prior years' compensation and the company's conversion from a partnership to a C corp. That activity skewed his total package higher for the year.
The stock and option awards were significant, too, totaling more than $567 million. But Pykosz also earned an enviable salary of almost $580,000, plus bonus pay of more than $390,000.
3. Trevor Bezdek: $497 million
Bezdek shares the CEO post at GoodRx, a company that helps people buy prescription drugs at lower prices. His co-CEO is the fourth-highest-paid CEO on our list, having earned just a few bucks less than Bezdek in 2020.
Bezdek's salary and bonus pay in 2020 totaled about $980,000. He also received more than $500 million in stock awards.
4. Douglas Hirsch: $497 million
Hirsch, co-CEO of GoodRx, earned the same salary, bonus, and stock awards as Bezdek in 2020. The minor difference in the total compensation packages between the two CEOs is related to perks. While Bezdek collected perks worth about $9,500, Hirsch's perks total was less than $7,000.
5. Eric Wu: $388 million
Wu is CEO of real estate company Opendoor Technologies. The company, which went public in December 2020, buys and sells homes via its Opendoor application. The initial public offering (IPO) was a big boon for Wu, whose compensation jumped by 134,000% from the previous year.
As you might expect, the bulk of Wu's $388 million pay package was composed of stock awards. He did earn a salary of $189,000, but, as far as CEO pay goes, $189,000 of cash compensation is modest. Not including Musk, Wu's salary is the lowest on our list by about $300,000, trailing the $500,000 earned by the co-CEOs of GoodRX.
6. Alex Karp: $369 million
Karp runs data analysis software company Palantir Technologies. Like Opendoor, Palantir went public in 2020. Shortly before its IPO, the company granted Karp 141 million options that vest quarterly.
Thanks to that pre-IPO grant, Karp earned more than $250 million in stock and option awards. He also took home a hefty salary of $1.1 million, plus perks valued at $3.1 million.
7. Tim Cook: $265 million
Cook assumed the CEO role at Apple in 2011 after Steve Jobs died. He has been a fixture on highest-paid CEO lists for several years.
Cook's total annual compensation in 2020 was about $265 million. Most people would love his $3 million CEO salary, but that amount pales next to his $10.7 million bonus and $250 million in stock awards.
8. Chad Richison: $220 million
Richison holds the CEO post at online payroll software company Paycom. His reported $220 million pay package sounds impressive, but there's a catch. In 2020, Richison earned a CEO salary and bonus of $829,000, and he also collected perks worth $736,000. But the remainder of his total compensation package -- $218 million -- is made up of restricted stock awards.
Richison can only access those shares when Paycom reaches certain share price targets, and the targets are aggressive. So while Richison makes the cut for highest-paid CEOs on paper, he may not collect the bulk of his 2020 reported compensation.
What about highly paid women CEOs?
Note the lack of diversity in the above list: The highly paid CEOs are all men, and most of them are white. There are no women CEOs or Black CEOs among the country's highest-paid corporate leadership.
A broader view of the data reveals much of the same. Among the top 100 highest-paid U.S. executives, there are only five women. Only one of those five -- Safra Catz of Oracle (NYSE:ORCL) -- is a CEO. The other four hold different leadership roles such as chief financial officer (CFO), chief operating officer (COO), or senior vice president.
As the highest-paid woman CEO, Catz earned $69 million in 2020, or about 1% of Musk's total compensation. Her salary was $950,000, and Oracle granted her $68 million in options awards. That pay package makes her the 48th-highest-paid executive.
Interestingly, Catz earned less than Opendoor's CFO Carrie Wheeler and AbCellera Biologics' (NASDAQ:ABCL) COO Veronique Lecault.
The last time a woman appeared in the top 10 list for CEO compensation was in 2016, when former IBM (NYSE:IBM) CEO Virginia Rometty earned $96 million. Rometty retired from IBM in 2020.
Other highly paid CEOs
The highest-paid CEO in the nonprofit sector is Ernie Sadau of faith-based healthcare facility operator CHRISTUS Health. For the fiscal year ending in June 2020, Sadau received more than $13 million in total compensation, and his base salary was $4.8 million.
Ascension Healthcare, another faith-based healthcare company, also handsomely compensates its chief executive. Ascension CEO Anthony Tersigni earned more than $10 million in 2020.
Highly paid women CEOs in the nonprofit sector are also underrepresented and earn less than their male counterparts. Teresa Campbell, CEO of San Diego County Credit Union, took the top spot for reported total compensation of about $10 million. Tiffany Carr, former president and CEO of the Florida Coalition Against Domestic Violence, took the third spot among women, with her total compensation package valued at $4.6 million.
