REPORT: CEO-Worker Pay Gaps and Political Priorities of the 100 Largest Low-Wage Corporations 

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On August 27, the Institute for Policy Studies released its 32nd annual Executive Excess report. The report takes an in-depth look at the 100 S&P 500 corporations with the lowest median worker pay — a group IPS has dubbed the “Low-Wage 100.” 

For each of these companies, the report provides data on CEO compensation, median worker pay, and stock buyback expenditures since 2019. The report also examines how the Low-Wage 100 have chosen to wield their considerable political power over the past year. 

Key findings:

1. CEO pay at Low-Wage 100 firms has soared since 2019 while median worker pay has lagged behind U.S. inflation.

• Between 2019 and 2025, average CEO compensation within this group rose more than twice as fast as these firms’ average median worker pay. 
• Average CEO compensation within the Low-Wage 100 hit $17.5 million in 2025, while average median worker pay sat at just $36,571.
• The average CEO-worker pay ratio of Low-Wage 100 firms has widened from 574 to 1 in 2019 to 614 to 1 in 2025. 
• The nominal value of median pay actually fell at 18 Low-Wage 100 corporations during this period.
• Lumentum, a company that manufactures AI data center technologies in China, recorded the widest pay gap in 2025. CEO Michael Hurlston made $27.7 million, 2,884 times as much as the company’s median pay of just $9,595.

2. From 2019 through 2025, the Low-Wage 100 spent $718 billion on stock buybacks.

• In 2025 alone, Low-Wage 100 firms spent a combined $108.6 billion on buybacks, a financial maneuver that artificially inflates CEOs’ stock-based pay and siphons resources out of worker wages and long-term investments.
• Walmart ranked No. 1 in buyback spending among Low-Wage 100 firms in 2025. Their $8.1 billion in share repurchases could have funded a $3,851 bonus for each of the retailer’s 2.1 million employees. Walmart’s CEO raked in $29.2 million in 2025 compensation – 958 times as much as the company’s median pay of $30,520. 

3. At least 36 billionaires owe their wealth to Low-Wage 100 companies.

• Six of these firms have spawned multiple billionaires alive today: Walmart (eight), Estee Lauder (four), DoorDash (three), Public Storage (two), Carvana (two), and Tyson Foods (two).  

4. The Low-Wage 100 have wielded their political power to enrich CEOs while turning a blind eye to the harmful effects of government actions on their workers.

• Low-Wage 100 firms have a combined force of 1,282 registered federal lobbyists.
• In 2025, a major priority was passage of the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, legislation that delivers huge tax cuts for the wealthy while slashing Medicaid and SNAP programs on which many of these firms’ employees rely.
• Report profiles of Walmart, DoorDash, Amazon, Home Depot, Target, and Dollar General document how Low-Wage 100 CEOs opted to not denounce aggressive ICE actions against their own personnel or on their property.
• Numerous leading Low-Wage 100 firms have rolled back DEI programs, including Amazon, Walmart, McDonald’s, Lowe’s, Tractor Supply, and Target.

“The Low-Wage 100 includes many of the world’s most influential CEOs,” said lead report author and executive compensation expert Sarah Anderson, director of the Global Economy Project at the Institute for Policy Studies. “They could be using their political and economic clout to defend their workers against multiple threats. Instead, at this precarious moment in our democracy, they’ve chosen to remain silent.” 

The report concludes with key policy changes to discourage excessive CEO payouts and wasteful stock buybacks, including taxing extreme CEO-worker pay gaps, increasing the stock buybacks tax, and restricting buybacks and CEO pay through federal contracts and subsidies.

Read the full report: https://ips-dc.org/report-executive-excess-2026

Press contacts:

Sarah Anderson, report author, sarah@ips-dc.org
Olivia Alperstein, Deputy Communications Director, olivia@ips-dc.org

About the author: Sarah Anderson directs the Global Economy Project at the Institute for Policy Studies and co-edits the IPS web site Inequality.org. She is a veteran executive compensation expert whose analysis has been featured in the Associated Press, the Financial Times, Reuters, The Guardian, New York Times, and many other outlets. Anderson has also testified on executive compensation before the Senate Budget Committee in 2012, 2021, and 2024.

About the Institute for Policy Studies: The Institute for Policy Studies is a multi-issue research center that has conducted path-breaking research on executive compensation for more than 30 years. IPS also provides a constant stream of inequality analysis and solutions through our Inequality.org web site and weekly newsletter.

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