Your CEO earns
how much more than you?
Pay ratios, executive compensation, and median worker wages for 2,313 U.S. public companies, drawn directly from U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission EDGAR proxy filings (DEF 14A) since 2018. According to SEC Item 402(u) of Regulation S-K, every domestic public registrant must disclose its CEO-to-median-worker pay ratio; see our methodology for refresh cadence and the exact filing parsing.
- Public companies
- 2,313
- Median ratio
- 87:1
- Years tracked
- 2021–2025
- Source
- SEC EDGAR
- 1. Opendoor Technologie… 7,581:1
- 2. Wayfair Inc. 5,702:1
- 3. FLEX LTD. 3,431:1
- 4. Hut 8 Corp. 2,423:1
- 5. Yum China Holdings, … 2,266:1
- 6. Six Flags Entertainm… 1,896:1
Highest Pay Ratios
CEO-to-median-worker pay gap leaders
Highest Paid CEOs
Top executive compensation by total pay
Learn About Executive Pay
CEO Pay Ratio Explained
What the SEC-mandated pay ratio means, how it's calculated, and what it reveals about income inequality within a company.
How Executive Compensation Works
Stock awards, options, bonuses, and base salary: the full structure of modern CEO pay packages at public companies.
Highest Paid CEOs 2025
The top 25 highest-paid chief executives in publicly traded companies, ranked by total compensation.
Pay Equity Trends in Corporate America
How CEO-to-worker pay ratios have shifted since mandatory disclosure, and what the data shows across industries.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is a CEO pay ratio?
The CEO pay ratio compares a company's CEO total compensation to the annual total compensation of its median (middle) employee. Required by the SEC since 2018 (Dodd-Frank Section 953(b)), it appears in every public company's annual proxy statement. A ratio of 300:1 means the CEO earns 300 times more than the typical worker.
Where does the data come from?
All data comes directly from SEC EDGAR proxy statements (DEF 14A filings). Public companies are required to disclose CEO pay, median employee pay, and the resulting ratio. PlainCEOPay aggregates these disclosures from 2,313 companies.
Why do ratios vary so much between companies?
Several factors drive differences: industry (tech CEOs often earn more stock awards), workforce composition (companies with many part-time or international workers show lower median pay), company size, and individual CEO pay packages. Stock awards and options can dramatically inflate CEO compensation in good years.
Is this data free to use?
Yes, all data on PlainCEOPay is completely free. The underlying data is public SEC disclosure. We organize it for easy research with no paywalls or account requirements.
About this data
How PlainCEOPay works, and why you can trust these numbers
What this site is
PlainCEOPay is a plain-language reference for CEO-to-worker pay ratios at U.S. public companies. Every figure comes directly from SEC EDGAR proxy statement filings (Form DEF 14A), covering 2,313 companies across 62 SIC industry groups, with no editorializing or estimation of unreported figures.
Editorial process
- Source. Download DEF 14A proxy filings from SEC EDGAR for S&P 500, Russell 1000, and additional mid-cap companies.
- Verify. Extract the Item 402(u) pay-ratio disclosure, then validate that the reported ratio matches reported CEO total compensation divided by reported median employee pay.
- Publish. Map each company to its SIC industry group, compute industry benchmarks, and load the figures into searchable company profiles, unmodified from the filing.
Editorial independence & corrections
PlainCEOPay accepts no advertising, sponsorship, or promoted placement from the companies it covers. Found a figure that looks wrong? Reach us via the contact page and we will verify against the source EDGAR filing. See our methodology for full source attribution and refresh cadence.
Frequently asked
What is a CEO pay ratio?
The CEO pay ratio compares a company's CEO total compensation to the annual total compensation of its median (middle) employee. Required by the SEC since 2018 (Dodd-Frank Section 953(b)), it appears in every public company's annual proxy statement. A ratio of 300:1 means the CEO earns 300 times more than the typical worker.
Where does the data come from?
All data comes directly from SEC EDGAR proxy statements (DEF 14A filings). Public companies are required to disclose CEO pay, median employee pay, and the resulting ratio. PlainCEOPay aggregates these disclosures from 2,313 companies.
Why do ratios vary so much between companies?
Several factors drive differences: industry (tech CEOs often earn more stock awards), workforce composition (companies with many part-time or international workers show lower median pay), company size, and individual CEO pay packages. Stock awards and options can dramatically inflate CEO compensation in good years.
Is this data free to use?
Yes, all data on PlainCEOPay is completely free. The underlying data is public SEC disclosure. We organize it for easy research with no paywalls or account requirements.
Related Guides
Editorial context for the plainceopay dataset, methodology, comparisons, and deep dives into the underlying records.
Live Data Products
PlainCEOPay is built on the SEC executive_pay + industry_benchmarks tables. Every page renders directly from the current dataset. See all research.
Company Compensation Profiles
Per-company summaries of reported CEO total compensation, median employee pay, and CEO-to-worker pay ratios from the current dataset.
Live DataPay Rankings
Companies ranked by CEO total compensation and CEO-to-worker pay ratio, derived from the live pay_rankings table.
Live DataIndustry Benchmarks
Industry-level compensation aggregates from the industry_benchmarks table, median CEO pay, average pay ratio, percentile spreads, and per-industry company counts.
Data currency: Executive compensation from SEC EDGAR DEF 14A proxy statements through fiscal year 2025, compiled and last refreshed July 2026. See our methodology for source dates and refresh cadence. Spot a figure that looks wrong? Report a correction.