Executive Compensation
CEO pay is one of the most-cited and least-understood numbers in the market. The headline figure is usually a grant-date value, not cash; some of the most powerful executives draw a $1 salary; the gap between the highest- and lowest-paid runs into the hundreds. This exhibit collects what the proxy filings actually say — the records, the outliers, and the fine print behind the numbers.
10 artifacts · From company proxy statements (DEF 14A) tracked in our CEO$ database. Each artifact links to its own sourced page.
The highest-paid chief executive in our CEO$ database is Hock Tan of Broadcom, at $205.3 million in fiscal 2025 — every dollar of it from the company’s SEC proxy.
At about $205 million, Broadcom’s Hock Tan booked one of the largest single-year CEO pay packages ever disclosed in an SEC proxy — nearly all of it a multi-year performance stock grant.
The highest-paid chief executive we track earned about 507× what the lowest-paid one did — Hock Tan of Broadcom versus Warren Buffett of Berkshire Hathaway, both from their own SEC proxies.
Half of the chief executives in our CEO$ database made more than $31.2 million last year, and half made less — a sense of the going rate for running a major public company.
The CEO-pay number you see in headlines is usually the grant-date value of stock awarded that year — not cash the executive banked. What actually vests can be far higher or lower.
Andy Jassy’s Amazon pay is often headlined at tens of millions, but the proxy’s Summary Compensation Table reports about $2 million — a $365,000 salary and security. The gap is the vesting value of a one-time 2021 stock grant.
Warren Buffett has drawn the same $100,000 salary from Berkshire Hathaway for over 40 years — one of the lowest CEO salaries of any major company. His wealth is his stock, not his pay.
Mark Zuckerberg’s official salary at Meta is $1. Nearly all of his reported pay is the cost of personal security — not compensation in the usual sense.
Elon Musk’s salary in Tesla’s proxy is effectively $0. His entire pay is a contested, all-or-nothing option package tied to enormous market-cap milestones — not cash or ordinary stock.
Costco pays its CEO around a $1.2 million salary and total pay under $14 million — remarkably restrained for a company worth several hundred billion dollars.