Ranked: How Many Lifetimes to Earn a CEO's Annual Pay

Using FY2024 proxy filings, rentseek.ing found that Mattel's median employee would need to work for over 100 lifetimes to earn what its CEO made in a single year. At McDonald's, the figure is about 25 lifetimes.

A "lifetime" here means a 40-year career at the company's median employee pay, as disclosed in SEC proxy filings. The results put abstract pay ratios into human terms.

Key findings:

- Mattel has the widest gap: a 4,028:1 ratio means 101 lifetimes per year of CEO pay

- MercadoLibre comes in at 40 lifetimes — driven by its $8,700 median employee pay

- McDonald's (25 lifetimes) and Hilton (14 lifetimes) round out the consumer-facing companies where the gap is most visible

- Apple's 650:1 ratio translates to 16 lifetimes — despite a median employee salary of $114,700, one of the highest on the list

- Even at the bottom of the top 15, 3M's gap still requires over 9 lifetimes

Data: FY2024 proxy filings — sourced from SEC EDGAR, analyzed by rentseek.ing

See how fast any CEO earns your salary at rentseek.ing/time-to-ceo