Senator Bernie Sanders is pushing for legislation to raise taxes on companies that pay their CEOs 50 times more than the average worker. The latest report on the highest-paid CEOs in S&P 500 companies for 2023 includes names from the technology sector and a CEO who faced criticism for high salaries despite layoffs in the company.
The top ten highest-paid CEOs in 2023, including stock awards and cash payments, are:
1. Hock Tan, Broadcom: $161.8 million
2. Nikesh Arora, Palo Alto Networks: $151.4 million
3. Stephen Schwarzman, Blackstone: $119.8 million
4. Christopher Winfrey, Charter Communications: $89.1 million
5. Will Lansing, Fair Isaac Corporation: $64.3 million
6. Tim Cook, Apple Inc.: $63.2 million
7. Hamid Moghadam, Prologics: $50.9 million
8. Ted Sarandos, Netflix Inc.: $50.0 million
9. David Zaslav, Warner Bros. Discovery: $49.7 million
10. Glenn Fogel, Booking Holdings: $46.7 million
The median salary for an S&P 500 CEO in 2023 was $15.7 million, setting a new record. Many of the highest-paid CEOs received large stock awards, with Tan required to stay in the CEO role for five years to receive the full value of his salary. Zaslav received the most cash among the top ten CEOs, with $25 million, followed by Sarandos with $19.5 million.
In 2023, there were 31 female S&P 500 CEOs, but none appeared among the top 25 highest-paid CEOs. Only one CEO from the top ten, Lansing, was from a company that ranked among the top ten best-performing S&P 500 stocks in 2023.
Jensen Huang, CEO of NVIDIA Corporation, ranked 23rd in the list, leading the best-performing stock in the S&P 500 for 2023. Elon Musk of Tesla Inc., another top performer, had no compensation in 2023. The high salaries of media CEOs, including Zaslav and Sarandos, following Hollywood strikes and job cuts have raised concerns among industry workers.
Netflix’s co-CEO Greg Peters also ranked in the top 25, further highlighting the disparity in compensation among top executives. The report found that CEOs whose stocks performed poorly had a median total salary of $14.6 million in 2023.
Overall, the increasing salaries of CEOs in the S&P 500, particularly among technology and media companies, have raised questions about income inequality and fair compensation practices. Sanders’ proposed legislation aims to address these disparities and hold companies accountable for excessive CEO pay ratios.
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https://www.benzinga.com/news/24/05/38993832/top-10-highest-paid-ceos-in-2023-elon-musk-nowhere-to-be-found-where-tim-cook-ted-sarandos-rank
