Elon Musk earned $158 billion in 2025 as compensation for serving as Tesla’s CEO — 2.5 million times the average Tesla employee’s pay.
Tesla’s total revenue last year was $94 billion, meaning Musk’s compensation exceeded the company’s entire revenue.
The reality is that the pay gap between CEOs and workers at US companies widened further in 2025. CEOs earned 312 times more, on average, than their companies’ median employee that year.
The figures come from a report on pay inequality by the AFL-CIO, the largest federation of labor unions in the United States, which examined how the gap between CEO and worker pay continues to grow.
The AFL-CIO report also found that Amazon CEO Andy Jassy earned 51 times more than the company’s average employee, while McDonald’s CEO Chris Kempczinski earned 1,082 times more than the company’s average worker.
In 2024, that gap stood at 285 times for CEOs of S&P 500-listed companies.
The union warned that this widening pay inequality could have a significant impact on global markets. If CEOs focus more on increasing their own compensation, it could reduce their attention to company stability or the broader economy.
The AFL-CIO report said excessive CEO compensation is driving economic inequality. It warned this creates a risk that CEOs will make short-term decisions to maximize their own pay — even at the expense of a company’s long-term interests — meaning personal profit takes precedence.
Musk’s outsized effect on the numbers
As a CEO, the world’s richest man Elon Musk’s compensation far exceeds everyone else’s. But despite receiving enormous pay in 2025, Tesla’s revenue fell 3 percent last year, with car sales dropping roughly 9 percent. Many consumers boycotted Tesla over Musk’s involvement in President Donald Trump’s second-term administration, contributing to the sales decline.
Tesla had to recall 11 vehicle models last year, pulling roughly 745,000 vehicles from the market. Beyond Tesla, Musk holds investments in the social media platform X, rocket company SpaceX, and several other companies.
When SpaceX held its initial public offering last June, Musk’s net worth briefly exceeded a trillion dollars.
According to the AFL-CIO report, the average CEO compensation was $3.1 billion. In 2025, average annual pay for CEOs of S&P 500-listed companies jumped 1,700 percent to $3.1 billion.
However, excluding Elon Musk, the picture changes considerably. Average annual CEO compensation was approximately $19 million in 2024. In 2025, it rose 21 percent to $22.8 million — roughly double the average CEO pay at S&P 500 companies a decade ago.
Pay gaps vary widely by industry
The gap between CEO and worker pay varies significantly by industry. The manufacturing sector showed the widest gap. A CEO in this sector earned an average of $696 million annually, compared to an average worker’s pay of just over $93,000 — a gap exceeding 11,000 percent. Tesla’s outsized pay gap in this sector plays a major role in driving up this ratio.
The second-widest gap was in the arts, entertainment, and recreation sector. CEOs in this sector earned an average of $24.6 million annually, compared to roughly $25,000 for a median-level employee — a ratio of 1,057 to 1, according to the AFL-CIO’s calculations.
Coffee chain Starbucks also has a significant pay gap. In 2025, an average Starbucks employee earned $17,279.
Meanwhile, Starbucks CEO Brian Niccol received compensation exceeding $30 million last year. The gap between Starbucks’ CEO and median employee pay stands at 1,794 to 1.
Trump’s income rose 254 percent
The AFL-CIO report also analyzed the income President Donald Trump earned in the first year of his second term.
According to the report, Trump’s income rose 254 percent in 2025 compared to the previous year, reaching approximately $2.2 billion.
Much of this came from the Trump family’s cryptocurrency business, World Liberty Financial, and meme coin sales.
According to the AFL-CIO’s calculations, Trump’s 2025 income was approximately 43,154 times that of a median US worker.
বাংলায় মূল প্রতিবেদন পড়ুন · Read the original Bengali report