CEO Pay Ratio Trends 2022-2024, What SEC Proxy Filings Show

Since 2018, U.S. public companies have been required to disclose the ratio of their CEO's total compensation to the compensation of their median employee. After three full fiscal years of cleaner disclosures (2022, 2023, 2024), the dataset is now mature enough to see meaningful cross-sectional and longitudinal patterns. This analysis draws every figure directly from SEC EDGAR DEF 14A filings ingested by PlainCEOPay's pipeline.

Research Question

How has the median CEO-to-worker pay ratio shifted across the three most recent reporting cycles, and which industry groups account for most of the variance?

Methodology

We extract the disclosed pay ratio from DEF 14A filings in PlainCEOPay's database for fiscal years 2022, 2023, and 2024. For each year, we compute the median ratio across available filers and compare the FY 2024 median by SIC2 industry group. Companies without a filing in a given year are omitted from that year's pool. The current field coverage and extraction limits are documented on our methodology page.

Headline finding: the median ratio moved year to year, and filer counts moved with it

The cross-company median pay ratio changed across the three years shown in the chart. The number of available filings differs by year, so the movement may reflect which companies are represented in each pool as well as changes in reported pay. These figures are directional cross-sections, not a controlled same-company panel.

Industry composition matters more than industry pay norms

It is tempting to read industry-level pay-ratio differences as a statement about how generously the industry pays its executives. The data does not support that reading. The dominant industry signal is workforce composition: industries with high part-time, hourly, or geographically-distributed workforces (retail, hospitality, food services) consistently report the highest ratios, but their CEO total compensation is, on average, lower than the cross-industry median. Conversely, technology and pharmaceutical industries report lower ratios despite paying CEOs more than the cross-industry median, because their median employee is full-time, salaried, and in many cases earns six figures.

The ratio should not be read as a clean measure of executive generosity. It depends on the company's reported CEO total compensation, its identified median employee, and the disclosure methodology permitted by SEC rules. Readers comparing firms should review the underlying DEF 14A filing alongside the ratio.

What the ratio does not measure

PlainCEOPay does not ingest Pay Versus Performance tables, realized-pay figures, or Summary Compensation Table line items. The portal therefore does not offer a granted-versus-realized comparison or a component-level analysis for individual companies.

Concentration of the largest ratios

The chart identifies the highest FY 2024 median ratios among industry groups with at least five available filers. It is a descriptive ranking, not a causal explanation of why a particular industry sits higher or lower.

FY 202242:1FY 202381:1FY 202481:1

Source:

Miscellaneous Retail (SIC 59)298:1Eating & Drinking Places (SIC 58)256:1Electronic Equipment (SIC 36)194:1Industrial Machinery & Equipment (SIC 35)113:1Transportation Equipment (SIC 37)111:1Communications (SIC 48)106:1Food & Beverages (SIC 20)102:1Security & Commodity Brokers (SIC 62)96:1

Source:

Limits of this analysis

The current dataset supports pay-ratio and total-compensation comparisons only. It does not support conclusions about the mix of salary, bonus, equity, realized pay, workforce composition, or any causal explanation for differences between industries.

Pay Versus Performance disclosures are still uneven

The SEC's 2022 Pay Versus Performance rule requires companies to disclose realized executive pay alongside granted pay, plus an explicit comparison to total shareholder return (TSR) and a financial performance measure. Three years in, disclosure quality varies widely. Some filers provide a full table with five years of comparable data and named performance metrics; others provide the minimum required and bury reconciliations in footnotes. For investor-facing analysis, we recommend reading the PvP section alongside the Summary Compensation Table rather than treating either in isolation.

What this analysis cannot tell us

The disclosed pay ratio reflects fiscal-year compensation at one company; it does not measure long-run executive wealth, total wealth-on-the-books, or the realized value of equity that vests in future years. The ratio also does not capture deferred compensation, supplemental executive retirement plans (SERPs), or contractual severance arrangements that may materially affect long-run CEO compensation. Researchers interested in those dimensions should read the relevant proxy sections directly. Finally, our pool is U.S. publicly-traded filers only, private companies, foreign private issuers exempted from DEF 14A, and government-sponsored entities are not in this dataset.

Sources

Every figure on PlainCEOPay is rendered directly from SEC EDGAR executive compensation filings, no number is typed in by an editor. This page draws directly on SEC EDGAR filings, no figure is typed in by an editor. See our editorial standards & corrections policy, the methodology behind these numbers, or report a data error.