CEO Pay up 17% as Profits, Stocks Rises

Even when regular workers receive the largest raises in decades, they pale in comparison to what CEOs receive. According to Equilar data analysed for The Associated Press, the average compensation package for CEOs of S&P 500 companies increased 17.1 percent last year, to a median of $14.5 million.

The increase dwarfs the 4.4 percent increase in wages and benefits netted by private-sector workers through 2021, which was the fastest since 2001. Many rank-and-file workers' pay raises also fell short of inflation, which reached 7% at the end of last year.

CEO pay skyrocketed as stock prices and profits soared as the economy emerged from its brief recession in 2020. Because a large portion of a CEO's pay is based on such performance, their pay packages ballooned after years of mostly moderate growth.

Many of the most eye-popping packages, such as Expedia Group's $296.2 million and JPMorgan Chase's $84.4 million, included large grants of stock or stock options to newly appointed CEOs navigating their companies through the pandemic or to established leaders they wanted to persuade to stay.