Executive compensation represents 2.5 million times the salary of a typical Tesla employee
The compensation of chief executives of the largest companies in the United States reached record levels in 2025. , CEO of Teslareceived US$132.3 billion (R$667.8 billion), according to Equilar’s annual survey for the published on Friday (June 5, 2026). The amount represents 2.5 million times the salary of a typical automaker employee.
2nd place in the ranking is Dylan FieldCEO yes Figmawhich received US$864.4 million (R$4.4 billion). Shankh Mitrayes Welltowercame in 3rd place with US$821 million (R$4.2 billion).
Seven CEOs of publicly traded companies received at least US$100 million (R$512.3 million) in the period analyzed. Equilar research, conducted since 2007, recorded this number as a record. The median remuneration of the 100 highest-paid chief executives in publicly traded companies reached US$39.4 million (R$201.8 million), an increase of 35.8% compared to the previous year.
Proportion between salaries
The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission published standardized guidelines in 2018 that require publicly traded companies to compare executive compensation to the salary of an average worker. That year, Equilar found that at the 100 companies with the highest-paid executives, the pay ratio was 334 to 1.
The indicator fluctuated in the following years and reached a maximum of 348. Last year, the proportion jumped to 475.
Peter F. Drucker advocated that CEOs voluntarily limit their salaries. For him, remuneration should not exceed 20 times what ordinary employees earned.
The typical pay gap is now more than 20 times the level that Drucker considered acceptable.
2018 prize reaches US$127.7 billion
The biggest prize ever recorded by Equilar before Musk’s latest package was also awarded by Tesla. The company approved the award in 2018. The valuation at the time was US$2.2 billion (R$11.7 billion). The plan was structured so that Tesla would need to reach ambitious goals before Musk could receive any share.
The company achieved its goals. As of last week, the 2018 prize was worth US$127.7 billion (R$650.7 billion), according to Courtney Yu, research director at Equilar.
Musk’s current wealth from Tesla reaches US$301 billion (R$1.5 trillion). This total does not include the latest compensation package, which will take years to fully acquire. Even so, it is already worth approximately US$178 billion (R$912 billion) due to the appreciation of the shares.
Equilar also calculated Musk’s stake in SpaceX based on the valuation sought by the company in its IPO. The company is targeting a valuation of US$1.8 trillion (R$9.2 trillion), and Musk owns around 50% of the shares.
Musk’s stake in SpaceX is worth up to US$864 billion (R$4.4 trillion), considering current and future actions linked to meeting the company’s goals.
A Delaware Court of Chancery judge ruled in 2024 that Tesla shareholders had not been properly informed about the true value of the compensation package approved in 2018. Shareholders granted the executive new awards in 2024 and 2025.
The Delaware Supreme Court in December restored Musk’s rights to the 2018 package, paving the way for his new compensation. Musk transferred Tesla’s legal domicile from Delaware to Texas in 2021. At SpaceX, transferred to Texas in 2024, he controls about 85% of voting shares.
Tesla shares have fallen this year. Since the company’s IPO in June 2010, the average annual return has been nearly 42%. The accumulated return exceeds 26,000%, according to FactSet.
Equilar calculated the median shareholder return for companies with the highest-paid CEOs since 2011. The average was 14.6% per year, about half a percentage point above the index’s annualized return S&P 500 in the same period.
