Elon Musk’s Pay Influenced CEO Compensation To Record High, Report Says

Aug 13, 2026 10:22 PM - 1 hour ago 1

Topline

Compensation plans for starring executives astatine S&P 500 companies reached an all-time precocious successful 2025, aft Elon Musk’s trillion-dollar salary woody astatine Tesla became a “reference” for different firms, according to a study reported by Reuters.

Musk’s SpaceX and Tesla person some approved compensation rewards that would adhd billions to the world’s largest fortune.

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Key Facts

Average compensation for CEOs successful the S&P 500—excluding Musk—surged 21% to $22.8 cardinal successful 2025, Reuters reported, citing information from the American Federation of Labor and Congress of Industrial Organizations (AFL-CIO).

That’s the largest fig since the AFL-CIO began search compensation plans successful the 1990s.

AFL-CIO secretary-treasurer Fred Redmond told Reuters that Musk’s salary astatine Tesla “changes the move erstwhile different CEO compensation plans travel up” and that “boards usage it arsenic a reference.”

Including Musk’s salary deal, which could beryllium weighted astatine much than $1 trillion should Tesla execute respective goals, mean compensation plans for main executives successful the S&P 500 topped $340 million.

forbes valuation

Musk is the world’s richest personification pinch a luck estimated astatine $870.6 billion arsenic of Thursday morning, and his nett worthy is much than double that of Google co-founder Larry Page ($284.3 billion) and Amazon’s Jeff Bezos ($275.7 billion), who rank the second- and third-richest, respectively. The SpaceX and Tesla CEO became the world’s first trillionaire pursuing the rocket maker’s trading debut successful June, and his luck peaked astatine an all-time precocious of $1.45 trillion earlier plunging SpaceX shares trim Musk’s nett worthy successful half. Musk appeared to admit his declining nett worthy successful a societal media post, writing connected X past period that he was a “(Former) trillionaire.”

key background

Tesla shareholders approved a compensation package for Musk past twelvemonth that features respective marketplace capitalization and income goals. Among the goals is Tesla’s marketplace valuation topping $8.5 trillion wrong 10 years and the automaker trading 12 cardinal much cars. The salary woody was opposed by immoderate finance groups, including the guidance patient overseeing Norway’s sovereign wealthiness fund, which said they were “concerned astir the award, dilution and deficiency of mitigation of cardinal personification risk.” He has akin compensation rewards outlined successful his SpaceX package, for illustration the patient establishing a “permanent quality colony” connected Mars pinch astatine slightest 1 cardinal group and SpaceX processing “non-Earth-based” information centers tin of delivering 100 terawatts of compute each year—about 29 times the energy generated globally successful 2023.