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Even though the median U.S. CEO pay package last year was nearly 200 times more than a worker in the middle of their company pay scales, Elon Musk\u2019s record-setting Tesla<\/a> compensation dwarfs them<\/a> by comparison.<\/p>\n Tesla shareholders on Thursday voted overwhelmingly<\/a> in favor of restoring Musk\u2019s 10-year pay plan, valued by the company in April at $44.9 billion. It was worth more early in the year, but Tesla\u2019s stock value has fallen about 25% since then.<\/p>\n The all-stock package, approved by the board and shareholders in 2018, rewards Musk for hitting milestones that include raising Tesla\u2019s market value, pretax income and revenue.<\/p>\n It had been tossed out by a Delaware judge in January who said the process for approving it was \u201cdeeply flawed.\u201d The court ruled that Musk controlled the company\u2019s board, and shareholders weren\u2019t fully informed.<\/p>\n But the company said Musk deserves the pay because he turned Tesla into the top-selling electric vehicle maker in the world, increasing its market value by billions.<\/p>\n Even with the reapproval vote, Musk won\u2019t get access to the stock options just yet. Tesla is expected to ask the judge to revisit her decision in light of the vote, and if she doesn\u2019t, the company probably will appeal the ruling to Delaware\u2019s Supreme Court. The whole process could take months.<\/p>\n No matter the outcome, Musk\u2019s package \u2014 the largest award to a CEO of a U.S. public company \u2014 is far above what\u2019s been granted to other chief executives. Here\u2019s how the package compares:<\/p>\n The median pay package for an S&P 500\u00a0U.S. CEO last year was $16.3 million,<\/a>\u00a0according to\u00a0data analyzed for The Associated Press by Equilar<\/a>. If you multiply that by 10 to get $163 million for a decade of work, Musk\u2019s earnings still would be 275 times greater.<\/p>\n In her January ruling that struck down the package, Delaware Chancellor Kathaleen St. Jude McCormick<\/a> wrote that Musk\u2019s package, then worth about $56 billion, was 250 times larger than the median peer CEO\u2019s pay plan.<\/p>\n The top earner in the AP\u2019s survey was Hock Tan, CEO of artificial intelligence company Broadcom<\/a> Inc. His package, mostly consisting of stock awards, was valued at about $162 million, when given to Tan at the start of fiscal 2023. Thanks to a surging stock price, Broadcom in March valued Tan\u2019s pay package, plus older options he hadn\u2019t yet cashed in, at $767.7 million. That\u2019s an amount easily eclipsed by Musk\u2019s potential haul of 304 million shares worth almost $45 billion.<\/p>\n Other CEOs at the top of AP\u2019s survey are William Lansing of Fair Isaac Corp, ($66.3 million); Tim Cook of Apple<\/a> Inc. ($63.2 million); Hamid Moghadam of Prologis<\/a> Inc. ($50.9 million); and Ted Sarandos, co-CEO of Netflix<\/a> ($49.8 million).<\/p>\n Technically, Musk got no compensation last year because he didn\u2019t get any stock options. But he stands to get even richer if his pay package goes through.<\/p>\n It\u2019s difficult to calculate what Musk\u2019s annual pay would have been last year. The company says he got nothing. But if his compensation package makes it through the courts, his pay will be in the billions. According to the company\u2019s proxy filing this year, the median annual pay of a non-CEO Tesla employee last year was $45,811.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\nWith the median CEO pay<\/h2>\n
With individual CEOs<\/h2>\n
With Tesla workers<\/h2>\n
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