AFL-CIO report says CEO-worker pay gap widens

Elon Musk’s Tesla compensation towered over the pay of the company’s typical worker in 2025, as the gap between chief executives and employees widened across major U.S. companies, according to a new AFL-CIO report.

The labor federation’s annual Executive Paywatch report said Musk received about $158 billion as Tesla’s chief executive, more than 2.5 million times the median pay of a Tesla worker. “In 2025, Elon Musk received the median Tesla worker’s pay every 4.23 seconds – less time than it takes to read this sentence,” the report said.

Musk’s package was an outlier. Excluding him, the average CEO-to-worker pay ratio among S&P 500 companies rose to 312-to-1 in 2025 from 285-to-1 in 2024, the AFL-CIO said. Average CEO pay, excluding Musk, climbed to $22.8 million from $18.9 million a year earlier, nearly double the average compensation package for chief executives a decade ago.

The Guardian reported that including Tesla raised average CEO pay to $340.1 million and the average pay ratio to 5,387-to-1. Al Jazeera reported that including Musk pushed average S&P 500 CEO pay to $3.1 billion.

The AFL-CIO, the largest federation of labor unions in the United States, said the pay divide could affect companies and the wider economy. “Excessive CEO compensation contributes to growing economic inequality,” the federation wrote. “It creates the risk that CEOs will make short-term decisions to maximize their pay, even if it hurts the company’s long-term health.”

Tesla’s compensation figures came during a difficult year for the electric vehicle maker, according to Al Jazeera. Tesla reported a 3% decline in revenue and a roughly 9% drop in sales, while facing 11 vehicle recalls covering 745,000 cars. The outlet reported that some consumers boycotted the company over Musk’s role in President Donald Trump’s second administration. Musk led the Department of Government Efficiency, an office Trump created to oversee cuts to the federal workforce and spending, during the first half of 2025.

The report also highlighted differences by industry. In manufacturing, the average CEO made $696 million, while the average worker made slightly more than $93,000, with Tesla helping drive the gap higher. In arts, entertainment and recreation, executives averaged $24.6 million, compared with about $25,000 for median workers, a ratio of 1,057-to-1.

At Starbucks, the average worker made $17,279, $1,629 above the federal poverty line in 2025, while CEO Brian Niccol earned more than $30 million, producing an estimated pay ratio of 1,794-to-1. The AFL-CIO also said workers at Amazon, Dollar Tree, FedEx, McDonald’s and Walmart are among the largest recipients of social assistance programs. Amazon CEO Andy Jassy made 51 times the company’s average employee, while McDonald’s CEO Chris Kempczinski made 1,082 times the average worker.

The report also examined Trump’s 2025 income, saying it rose nearly 254% from 2024 to $2.2 billion, largely from crypto holdings, including World Liberty Financial and meme coin sales. The AFL-CIO said the median U.S. worker would need 43,154 years to earn that amount.

Fred Redmond, the AFL-CIO’s secretary-treasurer, called the figures “political grift unlike what we have ever seen in our lifetimes, perhaps ever,” and said they showed how “CEOs and the Trump administration has rigged our economy to enrich themselves at the expense of working people.”

A White House spokesperson defended Trump’s finances, saying in an email: “As President Trump said, he has a lot of assets because he was a massively successful businessman prior to becoming President, which was why he was elected to office in the first place.” The spokesperson said Trump’s assets are held in discretionary accounts managed by independent third-party financial institutions and that “There are no conflicts of interest.”

The AFL-CIO cited broader financial pressures on workers, including that 33% of U.S. adults have no retirement savings, 37% cannot cover a $400 emergency expense, 26% have skipped medical care because of cost and 23% of renters have fallen behind on rent in the past year. Tesla did not immediately respond to The Guardian’s request for comment.