Average Annual Salary of US Major Company CEOs is 19.6 Billion KRW... Employees Earn '100 Million KRW'

Alphabet CEO Pichai Tops List
"It Takes Employees 190 Years to Earn CEO's Salary"

The average annual salary (including stocks) received by CEOs of major U.S. corporations last year reached 20 billion KRW, while employees earned only 100 million KRW.

On the 31st (local time), AP News and research firm Equilar analyzed the salaries of S&P 500 companies and found that the average CEO salary in 2022 was $14.8 million (approximately 19.6544 billion KRW). This survey targeted CEOs who have served for more than two years at 343 companies.

[Image source=Yonhap News]

This represents a 0.9% increase compared to the previous year, the smallest rise since 2015. In 2021, during the COVID-19 pandemic, the increase was 17% compared to the previous year.

The Highest Paid CEO in the U.S. is Alphabet's CEO... Tim Cook Ranks 3rd

Sundar Pichai, CEO of Google. Photo by Asia Economy DB

Among CEOs, Sundar Pichai, CEO of Alphabet, Google's parent company, topped the list with a salary of $226 million (approximately 300.128 billion KRW). The stock value paid by Google every three years that he holds amounted to $218 million (about 289.5 billion KRW).

Following him were Michael Rapino, CEO of global entertainment company Live Nation Entertainment, and Apple CEO Tim Cook, who ranked second. Michael Rapino earned $139 million (184.592 billion KRW), and Tim Cook received $99.42 million (132.93 billion KRW).

Some CEOs saw their salaries decrease. Carol Tom?, CEO of UPS, experienced a 31% reduction in salary compared to the previous year, among approximately 130 CEOs whose salaries declined.

Out of the 343 CEOs, only 20 were women. Among them, Lisa Su, CEO of U.S. semiconductor company AMD, received the highest salary at $30.21 million (40.11 billion KRW).

Despite 0.9% Increase, Criticism Persists... "It Will Take 190 Years for Workers to Catch Up"

AP News pointed out that although the CEO salary increase is the lowest since 2015, the salaries remain excessively high and the imbalance with workers is severe, which criticism cannot quell.

The average wage of workers at these companies was $77,178 (approximately 102.49 million KRW), representing a 1.3% increase from the previous year.

However, the media explained that this means it would take nearly 190 years for workers to earn the average salary that CEOs received last year.

It also added that considering last year’s stock market was the worst since 2008, inflation and recession concerns were high, and a wave of layoffs began mainly in big tech companies, even a small increase in CEO salaries might seem extravagant.

Average Salary of Employees at Major Korean Corporations is 99.08 Million KRW... Highest Salary Among Corporate Heads is 22.136 Billion KRW

Lee Jae-hyun, Chairman of CJ Group.

Meanwhile, according to business reports disclosed by major companies in March, Lee Jae-hyun, chairman of CJ Group, received the highest salary. His total salary last year was 22.136 billion KRW.

Next was Shin Dong-bin, chairman of Lotte Group, who ranked second with 18.98 billion KRW. Following were Chung Eui-sun, chairman of Hyundai Motor Group (10.626 billion KRW), Koo Kwang-mo, chairman of LG Group (9.478 billion KRW), and Kim Seung-yeon, chairman of Hanwha Group (9 billion KRW).

Lee Jae-yong, chairman of Samsung, ranked first in the business world, is reported to have continued management without pay since 2017.

Among domestic professional managers, former co-CEOs of Kakao, Cho Soo-yong and Yeo Min-soo, received 36.447 billion KRW (salary 685 million KRW) and 33.417 billion KRW (salary 456 million KRW), respectively, through exercising stock options.

Also, according to the Korea CXO Institute, which specializes in corporate analysis, the average salary of general employees at 120 major corporations last year was 99.08 million KRW. The so-called "100 million KRW club," where the average salary of general employees exceeds 100 million KRW, included 27 companies such as NH Investment & Securities, Meritz Securities, and S-Oil.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.