finance
CEO Pay Rose 20 Times Faster Than Worker Wages in 2025
A new analysis shows CEO compensation at major corporations rose sharply in 2025, outpacing worker wage growth by a factor of 20 worldwide. Inflation-adjusted worker pay fell below 2019 levels, while CEOs saw real-terms increases. The gap was even wider in the U.S., with stock ownership concentrated among top households.
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Chief executives at the world's largest companies saw their pay climb 20 times faster than workers' wages in 2025, according to an analysis by the International Trade Union Confederation and Oxfam. The study examined 1,500 top-paying corporations across 33 countries that disclosed CEO compensation for 2025. 6 million in 2024, marking an 11% real-terms increase.
5% in 2025. Globally, inflation-adjusted worker pay was lower in 2025 than in 2019, reflecting a 12% decline between those years. That drop equated to 108 days of free work for workers over the period.
CEO compensation, however, increased by 54% from 2019 to 2025. A typical worker would need 490 years to earn what the average CEO received in a single year in 2025. The analysis also highlighted a 16% gender pay gap among the studied corporations, meaning women effectively worked for free after November 4 each year.
The top 10 highest-paid CEOs collectively received more than $1 billion in 2025. Four companies—Blackstone, Broadcom, Goldman Sachs, and Microsoft—paid their CEOs over $100 million each that year.
3% over the same period. 3% increase in average hourly earnings for private company workers. U.S.
Households held 93% of stocks, up from 81% in 2013. Billionaires earned $2,500 per second in dividends in 2025, based on investment portfolios of more than 1,000 billionaires. For every two hours in 2025, the average billionaire received more in dividends than the typical worker earned annually.
2% increase from 2025. “This analysis exposes the billionaire coup against democracy and its costs for working people,” said Luc Triangle, general secretary of the International Trade Union Confederation. “Companies promise us a virtuous cycle, but what we see is a vicious cycle led by mega corporations – they undermine collective bargaining and social dialogue while billionaire CEOs capture the wealth created by productivity gains,” Triangle added.
