This CEO Made Almost 2,000 Times More Than His Employees

By Douglas A. McIntyre Published Apr 15, 1:00PM EDT

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This CEO Made Almost 2,000 Times More Than His Employees — © Alberto E. Rodriguez / Getty Images

CEO pay has been described as obscenely high by investors, worker activists, and the press. How, these groups ask, can one person be worth millions or even tens of millions of dollars in compensation each year? Asked another way, how can one person be paid so much more than company employees? For example, Aptiv Plc CEO Kevin P. Clark made almost 2,000 more than his employees.

Corporate boards have an answer. A chief executive officer who adds billions of dollars of value to a company’s stock deserves a rich reward. So do CEOs who turn around struggling companies or significantly boost earnings. (These are the largest fortune 500 companies still led by their founders.)

Part of the federal government’s efforts to curb high pay is a program that lets investors vote on senior management compensation. Proxies now include a “say on pay” section in which shareholders can vote about whether management compensation is excessive. However, these votes have no teeth. They cannot force the hands of a board of directors.

Proxies also have to show the ratio of CEO pay to the pay of the median worker at the company. A recent Harvard study showed that CEO pay at public corporations is back on the rise after initial pandemic adjustments, based on data filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission so far this year. The authors wrote, “In 2021, median total direct compensation for companies included in the analysis increased to $14.3 million. This change from $12 million in 2020 would represent a near 20% increase, should the trend persist.”

It is not unusual for a CEO to make several times the median pay of workers at the company. To find CEO pay ratios, 24/7 Wall St. used data provided by MyLogIQ, which uses artificial intelligence and machine learning to analyze SEC data. According to the data, at investment bank Goldman Sachs, for example, the ratio was 238 to 1. At AT&T, the figure was 231 to 1.

Kevin Clark of Aptive made 1,992 more than the median employee at the company did, with employees including both workers in the United States and overseas. The company is based in Dublin but trades on a U.S. exchange, so it has to file its financial and proxies in the U.S.

Last year, Clark made $14,744,780. The median worker’s pay at Aptive, meanwhile, was $7,402. Aptive supplies technology, primarily to the auto industry. According to its 10-K, the company’s revenue last year was $15.6 billion, up from $13 billion the year before. Net income, however, dropped from $1.8 billion to $609 million. (While Clark makes almost 2,000 more than his employees, this American CEO made $247 million last year.)

Click here to see this CEO made almost 2,000 times more than his employees

25. Jeffrey S. Sloan
> Company: Global Payments Inc
> CEO pay ratio: 415x higher than the median employee
> Total compensation: $23.3 million
> Median worker compensation: $56,202

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24. Greg D. Johnson
> Company: O’Reilly Automotive Inc
> CEO pay ratio: 454x higher than the median employee
> Total compensation: $12.8 million
> Median worker compensation: $28,113

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23. Julie Sweet
> Company: Accenture Plc
> CEO pay ratio: 473x higher than the median employee
> Total compensation: $23.1 million
> Median worker compensation: $48,770

22. Silviu Popovici
> Company: Pepsico Inc
> CEO pay ratio: 488x higher than the median employee
> Total compensation: $25.5 million
> Median worker compensation: $52,297

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21. William C. Rhodes Iii
> Company: Autozone Inc
> CEO pay ratio: 488x higher than the median employee
> Total compensation: $14.8 million
> Median worker compensation: $30,375

20. Anthony G. Capuano
> Company: Marriott International Inc
> CEO pay ratio: 506x higher than the median employee
> Total compensation: $18.5 million
> Median worker compensation: $36,505

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19. Wendell P. Weeks
> Company: Corning Inc
> CEO pay ratio: 509x higher than the median employee
> Total compensation: $20.8 million
> Median worker compensation: $40,760

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18. David M. Zaslav
> Company: Discovery, Inc.
> CEO pay ratio: 527x higher than the median employee
> Total compensation: $43.7 million
> Median worker compensation: $82,964

17. Frederic B. Lissalde
> Company: Borgwarner Inc
> CEO pay ratio: 554x higher than the median employee
> Total compensation: $17.6 million
> Median worker compensation: $31,740

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16. Douglas L. Peterson
> Company: S&P Global Inc.
> CEO pay ratio: 580x higher than the median employee
> Total compensation: $16.1 million
> Median worker compensation: $27,835

15. Terrence R. Curtin
> Company: Te Connectivity Ltd.
> CEO pay ratio: 589x higher than the median employee
> Total compensation: $14.7 million
> Median worker compensation: $24,975

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14. Robert A. Chapek
> Company: Walt Disney Co
> CEO pay ratio: 644x higher than the median employee
> Total compensation: $32.5 million
> Median worker compensation: $50,430

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13. Vincent T. Roche
> Company: Analog Devices Inc
> CEO pay ratio: 668x higher than the median employee
> Total compensation: $30.8 million
> Median worker compensation: $46,141

12. Marc R. Bitzer
> Company: Whirlpool Corp
> CEO pay ratio: 692x higher than the median employee
> Total compensation: $18.8 million
> Median worker compensation: $27,128

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11. Thomas M. Rutledge
> Company: Charter Communications, Inc.
> CEO pay ratio: 698x higher than the median employee
> Total compensation: $41.9 million
> Median worker compensation: $60,007

10. Mitchell R. Butier
> Company: Avery Dennison Corp
> CEO pay ratio: 815x higher than the median employee
> Total compensation: $12.4 million
> Median worker compensation: $15,256

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9. Robert G. Goldsteinceo
> Company: Las Vegas Sands Corp
> CEO pay ratio: 866x higher than the median employee
> Total compensation: $31.1 million
> Median worker compensation: $35,879

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8. Liam K. Griffin
> Company: Skyworks Solutions, Inc.
> CEO pay ratio: 928x higher than the median employee
> Total compensation: $16.2 million
> Median worker compensation: $17,409

7. Jacek Olczak
> Company: Philip Morris International Inc.
> CEO pay ratio: 1,055x higher than the median employee
> Total compensation: $19.2 million
> Median worker compensation: $18,196

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6. Tim D. Cook
> Company: Apple Inc
> CEO pay ratio: 1,447x higher than the median employee
> Total compensation: $98.7 million
> Median worker compensation: $68,254

5. Patrik Frisk
> Company: Under Armour, Inc.
> CEO pay ratio: 1,485x higher than the median employee
> Total compensation: $15.5 million
> Median worker compensation: $10,466

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4. Kevin R. Johnson
> Company: Starbucks Corp
> CEO pay ratio: 1,579x higher than the median employee
> Total compensation: $20.4 million
> Median worker compensation: $12,935

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3. Arnold W. Donald
> Company: Carnival Corp
> CEO pay ratio: 1,740x higher than the median employee
> Total compensation: $15.1 million
> Median worker compensation: $8,658

2. James Quincey
> Company: Coca Cola Co
> CEO pay ratio: 1,791x higher than the median employee
> Total compensation: $24.9 million
> Median worker compensation: $13,894

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1. Kevin P. Clark
> Company: Aptiv Plc
> CEO pay ratio: 1,992x higher than the median employee
> Total compensation: $14.7 million
> Median worker compensation: $7,402

About the Author Douglas A. McIntyre →

Douglas A. McIntyre is the co-founder, chief executive officer and editor in chief of 24/7 Wall St. and 24/7 Tempo. He has held these jobs since 2006.

McIntyre has written thousands of articles for 24/7 Wall St. He is an expert on corporate finance, the automotive industry, media companies and international finance. He has edited articles on national demographics, sports, personal income and travel.

His work has been quoted or mentioned in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Los Angeles Times, The Washington Post, NBC News, Time, The New Yorker, HuffPost USA Today, Business Insider, Yahoo, AOL, MarketWatch, The Atlantic, Bloomberg, New York Post, Chicago Tribune, Forbes, The Guardian and many other major publications. McIntyre has been a guest on CNBC, the BBC and television and radio stations across the country.

A magna cum laude graduate of Harvard College, McIntyre also was president of The Harvard Advocate. Founded in 1866, the Advocate is the oldest college publication in the United States.

TheStreet.com, Comps.com and Edgar Online are some of the public companies for which McIntyre served on the board of directors. He was a Vicinity Corporation board member when the company was sold to Microsoft in 2002. He served on the audit committees of some of these companies.

McIntyre has been the CEO of FutureSource, a provider of trading terminals and news to commodities and futures traders. He was president of Switchboard, the online phone directory company. He served as chairman and CEO of On2 Technologies, the video compression company that provided video compression software for Adobe’s Flash. Google bought On2 in 2009.