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    Labor & Employment Law Daily Wrap Up, REPORTS—AFL-CIO details disparities in salaries of S&P CEOs and their workers, (Aug 6, 2025)

    Organizations Mentioned:AFL-CIO | SpaceX | Tesla

    By Patricia K. Ruiz, J.D.

    The report describes financial benefits reaped by corporations whose CEOs donated to President Trump’s reelection campaign and inauguration.

    S&P 500 CEOs earned an average of $18.9 million in total compensation in 2024, a seven percent increase ...

    By Patricia K. Ruiz, J.D.

    The report describes financial benefits reaped by corporations whose CEOs donated to President Trump’s reelection campaign and inauguration.

    S&P 500 CEOs earned an average of $18.9 million in total compensation in 2024, a seven percent increase over the previous year, according to the American Federation of Labor and Congress of Industrial Organizations (AFL-CIO) 2025 Executive Paywatch report. As such, CEOs made 285 times the median income of their workers, up from 268-to-1 in 2023.

    Pay disparities. According to the annual Executive Paywatch report, which analyzes data to quantify the economic inequality between CEOs and their workers, in 2024, Starbucks had the highest CEO-to-worker pay ratio out of all S&P 500 Index companies, with the company’s CEO receiving $97,813,843 in annualized total compensation—6,666 times more than the company’s median employee. The greatest disparities between S&P CEOs and their workers were found in Washington, Oregon, and Kentucky, according to the report.

    Political benefits. The report further shows that America’s richest CEOs donated to Donald Trump’s reelection campaign and inauguration, benefitting from these contributions through the loosening of regulations and the gutting of federal agencies. According to AFL-CIO, Elon Musk (Tesla and SpaceX) personally donated $288 million to Trump’s reelection campaign, while Meta Platforms and Amazon contributed $1 million each, allowing Mark Zuckerberg and Jeff Bezos to claim front-row seats at the 2025 inauguration. Due to the Republican budget reconciliation bill, CEOs listed in the report will be able to avoid paying $738 million in income taxes, reducing the marginal income tax rate of these CEOs by nearly $500,000 a year.

    AFL-CIO stated that this lost tax revenue could have paid for Medicaid coverage for more than 80,000 people, SNAP food assistance for more than 300,000, or school lunches for more than 900,000 students.

    “A union is the best check on a bad boss,” said Fred Redmond, secretary-treasurer of AFL-CIO. “So while greedy billionaires and corporations drive up the cost of living, we’ll continue to fight for the policies and fair contracts that get workers the pay they’ve earned.”

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