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Tesla’s (NASDAQ:TSLA) shareholders on Thursday voted to restore Chief Executive Elon Musk’s 10-year pay plan, valued at $44.9 billion by the electric-vehicle maker in April.
The record-setting sum dwarfs the median compensation for CEOs of the biggest publicly traded U.S. corporations. Last year, their pay was about 200 times more than the median amount for a worker at their respective companies, the Associated Press reported.
The highest-paid CEO last year was Hock Tan, head of artificial intelligence company Broadcom (AVGO), with a pay package valued at $162 million at the start of 2023. Because his compensation mostly consisted of stock awards, its value ballooned to $767.7 million in March as Broadcom’s (AVGO) share price hit a record high, according to the AP’s analysis.
Other top-paid CEOs were William Lansing of Fair Isaac (FICO) at $66.3 million; Tim Cook of Apple (AAPL) at $63.2 million; Hamid Moghadam of Prologis (PLD) at $50.9 million; and Ted Sarandos, co-CEO of Netflix (NFLX), at $49.8 million.
The median pay package last year for a CEO of an S&P 500 company was $16.3 million, the AP reported, citing data analyzed by benchmarking firm Equilar.
Despite Tesla’s (TSLA) shareholder vote, Musk and the company still face legal opposition to the stock-option deal. The shareholder vote also is being challenged in court.
