US CEO pay is climbing again, and eight S&P 500 bosses just hit nine figures

A new round of compensation data suggests U.S. CEO pay is rising once more, reviving an old debate over what corporate "discipline" actually looks like.

Among S&P 500 companies, eight CEOs cleared the $100 million mark, with one package far larger than the rest.

What happened?

Using The Wall Street Journal's annual review of CEO compensation, Inc. reported that executive pay is moving up again after the downturn in 2021. In Inc.'s summary of the Journal analysis, 2025 saw more CEO pay packages of $100 million or more than any year since 2021.

Tesla CEO Elon Musk's award stood well above everyone else's, totaling more than $158 billion. The next-largest payouts in the figures cited by Inc. went to REIT Welltower's Shankh Mitra at $821 million, CrowdStrike's George Kurtz at $248 million, and Broadcom's Hock Tan at $205 million.

Another set of nine-figure packages in Inc.'s recap of the Journal data included Warner Bros. Discovery's David Zaslav at $165 million, Blackstone's Stephen Schwarzman at $126 million, and Goldman Sachs' David Solomon at $119 million.

Taken together, the payouts show executive rewards snapping back quickly, even as many workers and consumers continue to face high costs and economic uncertainty.

Why does it matter?

These compensation packages show what many large companies are willing to prioritize.

Businesses often defend layoffs, slower hiring, higher prices, or reduced customer perks as necessary cost-cutting measures. But when executive pay surges back into nine-figure territory, that message can ring hollow for employees and households already squeezed by rent, groceries, insurance, and debt.

The industries represented in this group also shape everyday life in direct ways. Real estate firms influence housing markets and senior living costs. Tech companies affect workplace security and software spending. Financial giants help shape banking, investing, and retirement accounts. Media conglomerates make decisions about jobs, content, and subscription prices.

When leadership incentives grow this large, critics often worry they can encourage short-term stock gains at the expense of long-term stability for workers, customers, and communities. These figures also show how far compensation at the top has drifted from what most people bring home.

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