What You Could Buy With These CEOs' Yearly Compensation: From Eloon Musk To Eric Wu

The Economic Policy Institute (EPI) estimates that CEO compensation has grown 1,322% since 1978, while typical worker compensation has risen just 18%. In 2020, CEOs of the top 350 firms in the U.S. made $24.2 million on average, which was 351 times more than a typical worker.

Sometimes the coveted C-level title doesn’t always garner large annual sums: former Apple Inc APPL CEO Steve Jobs famously slashed his pay to $1 shortly after rejoining Apple and kept it there for more than a decade. And in 2019, Tesla Inc TSLA CEO Elon Musk earned just $23,000 — enough to purchase half of one Tesla Model Y. 

Who were the most handsomely compensated C-level executives in 2020, and what can you do with their salaries?

Elon Musk, CEO, Tesla Inc TSLA: $6,658,803,818 - The New York Yankees (or A LOT of Dogecoin: CRYPTO: DOGE). 

Mike Pykosz, CEO, Oak Street Health Inc OSH: $568,442,024 -  Villa Les Cèdres, the fourth most expensive house in the world.

Trevor Bezdek, co-CEO, Goodrx Holdings Inc GDRX: $497,838,903 - 1,000 tickets for space travel with Virgin Galactic Holdings Inc SPCE.

Eric Wu, CEO, Opendoor Technologies OPEN: $388,713,679 - Four "pink star" diamonds, the most expensive in the world. 

Alex Karp, CEO, Palantir Technologies Inc PLTR: $369,553,959 - Several islands in the Maldives. 

Geoffrey Price, COO Oak Street Health Inc: $356,271,777 - 117,486 shares of Amazon.com, Inc. AMZN 

Tim Cook, CEO, Apple Inc: $265,043,550 - 221,053 iPhone 13 Pro Max 256GB

Griffin Myers, Chief Medical Officer, Oak Street Health Inc: $221,354,227 - Two Boeing Co BA 737 MAX airplanes. 

Chad Richison, CEO, Paycom Software Inc PAYC: $220,003,916 - A Chinese tea bowl dating back to the Song Dynasty (960-1279).

(Salary source: Bloomberg)
Originally published on March 13, 2022.

Photo: Courtesy Boeing