Wall Street’s Golden Kings: CEO Pay Soars While Workers Scrape By

While millions of Americans continue to struggle with rent, groceries, and medical bills, the corporate elite are popping champagne corks over yet another obscene payday. According to the latest Associated Press survey, the typical CEO at an S&P 500 company raked in a jaw-dropping $17.1 million in 2024 — a nearly 10% increase over the previous year. Meanwhile, the median worker saw a paltry 1.7% raise, bringing their annual earnings to just $85,419.

Let that sink in: the people who actually keep these companies running — the warehouse workers, the customer service reps, the janitors — got crumbs, while the executives at the top cashed in millions.

And the corporate spin machine is working overtime to justify it. “Performance-based pay,” they say, as if tying compensation to stock prices magically makes it fair. But let’s be honest: these stock awards are just another way to funnel wealth to the top while pretending it’s meritocratic. CEOs are being rewarded not for building sustainable businesses or treating workers well, but for maximizing short-term profits and inflating share prices — often through layoffs, union busting, and outsourcing.

Take Rick Smith of Axon Enterprises, who topped the list with a $164.5 million package. His company makes Tasers and body cameras — tools of state violence — and saw its stock more than double last year. Smith’s payday is tied to performance targets through 2030, but let’s not pretend this is anything other than a grotesque transfer of wealth to the top.

Other top earners include Apple’s Tim Cook ($74.6 million), Netflix’s Ted Sarandos ($61.9 million), and GE Aerospace’s Lawrence Culp ($87.4 million). These are the same companies that tout diversity and inclusion while their CEOs earn hundreds of times more than their average employees.

Speaking of disparities, the pay gap is now so vast it’s practically a canyon. At Carnival Corp, the CEO made 1,300 times what the median worker earned. At McDonald’s, it’s 1,000 times. These are not just numbers — they’re a moral indictment of a system that rewards wealth hoarding and punishes labor.

Even the so-called “progress” for women CEOs is bittersweet. Yes, the 27 women in the survey earned a median of $20 million — more than their male counterparts — but that’s still a tiny fraction of the executive class. And it does nothing to address the millions of women working minimum-wage jobs with no benefits, no paid leave, and no path to advancement.

Let’s also talk about the absurd perks. Security spending for CEOs jumped to $94,276 last year — because apparently, the rich need protection from the consequences of their own greed. Companies like Centene and Intel are spending tens of thousands of dollars to keep their executives safe, while their workers are left to fend for themselves.

This isn’t just unfair — it’s unsustainable. As Sarah Anderson of the Institute for Policy Studies put it, these massive pay gaps “undercut enterprise effectiveness by lowering employee morale and boosting turnover rates.” Translation: when workers are treated like disposable tools, companies suffer in the long run.

The bottom line? America’s corporate aristocracy is thriving while the working class is being left behind. CEO pay is skyrocketing, not because of innovation or leadership, but because the system is rigged to reward those who already have everything. It’s time to tax the rich, empower workers, and rebuild an economy that works for everyone — not just the elite in the boardroom.