CEO pay increased 20 times faster than worker pay around the world in 2025, according to a new analysis from Oxfam and the International Trade Union Confederation, the world’s largest trade union federation.
When adjusted for inflation, global worker pay declined 12% between 2019 and 2025, the equivalent of 108 days of free work during that time period. In comparison, CEO compensation increased by 54% between 2019 and 2025.
The average CEO received $8.4m in total compensation in 2025 compared to $7.6m in 2024.
He kinda started strong with trying to undo the toxic Ballmer era culture and scrambling to try to catch up on cloud infra. But even back then, the push for crazy excessive telemetry and moving pretty much all of QA into data science was the beginning of the end. And like all tech execs, AI has them losing their GD minds.