In 2015, the chief executive officers in the largest companies in the United States earned an average of $15.5 million, 276 times the annual average pay of the typical worker, according to the Economic Policy Institute.
This, however, is a decline from 2014, when the CEO-to-worker compensation ratio stood at 302-to-1. But it remains far ahead of the ratio in 1965: 20-to-1. CEO pay in 2014 averaged $16.3 million.
The EPI report, released last month, estimated CEO compensation by examining the pay of the chief executives of the top 350 U.S. firms. It included salaries, bonuses, restricted stock grants, long-term incentive payouts and the value of stock options exercised in the last year.
As a ratio of the pay of the typical worker, CEO compensation reached its highest point in 2000, 376-to-1.
“Chief executive officers of America’s largest firms earn more than 2.5 times more than they did 20 years ago and at least seven times more than 30 years ago, despite a drop in compensation in 2015 corresponding to faltering stock prices in late 2015,” the report said.