CEO-to-worker pay gap surges to 632 to 1 at US’s lowest-paying large firms, study shows

At 100 firms in S&P 500 with lowest median pay, executives' comp increased by average of nearly 35% over five years

Some of the US's lowest-paying large firms increased their CEOs' compensation by an average of almost 35% over five years, according to new research. Their workers' salaries did not keep up.

As executive remuneration ballooned, the average CEO-to-worker pay gap across the 100 companies in the S&P 500 with lowest median worker pay - dubbed the Low-Wage 100 by the Institute for Policy Studies - widened by 12.9% between 2019 and 2024, from 560 to 1 to 632 to 1.