Thanks to a late-summer ruling by the Securities and Exchange Commission, CEOs of large public companies will finally have to start fessing up to how much more they make than their employees—but not until 2017. What can you expect? Using fiscal year 2014 data, Chicago estimated the CEO-employee pay gap at every public company in the Chicago area with revenues of at least $10 billion (there are 17). The takeaway: Income inequality is significantly worse than the 151:1 ratio at the median Standard & Poor’s 500 company (calculating it isn’t an exact science—ratios range from 204:1 to 373:1 elsewhere). And when it’s bad, it’s really bad (we’re talking about you, Walgreen).
Scroll over the names and companies with asterisks for more information.
Bonus: Use our fat-cat calculator to see how you compare.
Photos: (Wasson) Kuni Takahashi/Chicago Tribune; (Money) iStockphoto
| Company CEO in 2014 | CEO Pay* (in millions) | Median Employee Pay |
How Much More the CEO Made |
|---|---|---|---|
| Walgreen*Greg Wasson* | $16.70 | $28,700 |
582 times more
|
| Mondelez Irene Rosenfeld | $15.90 | $38,800 |
410
|
| McDonald’s Don Thompson* | $7.30 | $24,300 |
300
|
| BoeingJim McNerney* | $23.50 | $78,800 |
298
|
| ADMPatricia Woertz* | $16.30 | $58,700 |
278
|
| AllstateTom Wilson | $13.00 | $48,300 |
269
|
| Abbott LabsMiles White | $16.20 | $85,100 |
190
|
| AbbvieRichard Gonzalez | $17.00 | $91,890 |
185
|
| Baxter Bob Parkinson | $12.80 | $77,000 |
166
|
| United ContinentalJeff Smisek* | $11.30 | $68,300 |
165
|
| Illinois Tool WorksScott Santi | $10.60 | $67,500 |
157
|
| S&P 500 Median | $10.30 | $68,100 |
151
|
| R.R. DonnelleyTom Quinlan | $8.10 | $55,400 |
146
|
| ExelonChristopher Crane | $12.60 | $91,200 |
138
|
| SearsEddie Lampert | $5.70 | $44,900 |
127
|
| Kraft Foods*Tony Vernon* | $8.20 | $71,100 |
115
|
| CDWTom Richards | $6.00 | $64,600 |
93
|
| NavistarTroy Clarke | $4.60 | $72,800 |
63
|
Sources: Equilar (CEO pay), PayScale (median employee pay, except for Mondelez and AbbVie, which came from Glassdoor).
And How Did Those Companies Perform in 2014?
Most of these CEOs took home less than 1 percent of their company’s profits, but R.R. Donnelley’s Tom Quinlan took home a whopping 6.9 percent. And of course Navistar and Sears ended the year in the red. Oops!
| Company CEO in 2014 | 2014 Revenue (in billions) |
CEO Pay as % of Revenue |
2014 Profits (in billions) | CEO Pay as % of Profits |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| SearsEddie Lampert |
$31.20 |
0.02%
|
-$1.68 |
Oops! Did not turn a profit.
|
| NavistarTroy Clarke |
$10.81 |
0.04%
|
-$0.62 |
Oops! Did not turn a profit.
|
| R.R. DonnelleyTom Quinlan |
$11.60 |
0.07%
|
$0.12 |
6.90%
|
| CDWTom Richards |
$12.08 |
0.05%
|
$0.25 |
2.44%
|
| United ContinentalJeff Smisek |
$38.90 |
0.03%
|
$1.13 |
1.00%
|
| AbbvieRichard Gonzalez |
$19.96 |
0.08%
|
$1.77 |
0.96%
|
| WalgreenGreg Wasson |
$76.39 |
0.02%
|
$1.93 |
0.86%
|
| Kraft FoodsTony Vernon |
$18.21 |
0.04%
|
$1.04 |
0.78%
|
| ExelonChristopher Crane |
$27.43 |
0.05%
|
$1.62 |
0.77%
|
| Mondelez Irene Rosenfeld |
$34.24 |
0.05%
|
$2.18 |
0.73%
|
| ADMPatricia Woertz |
$81.20 |
0.02%
|
$2.25 |
0.73%
|
| Abbott LabsMiles White | $22.32 |
0.07%
|
$2.28 |
0.71%
|
| Baxter Bob Parkinson |
$16.97 |
0.08%
|
$2.50 |
0.51%
|
| AllstateTom Wilson |
$35.24 |
0.04%
|
$2.85 |
0.46%
|
| BoeingJim McNerney |
$90.76 |
0.03%
|
$5.45 |
0.43%
|
| Illinois Tool WorksScott Santi |
$15.28 |
0.07%
|
$2.95 |
0.36%
|
| McDonald’s Don Thompson |
$27.44 |
0.03%
|
$4.76 |
0.15%
|
How You Doin’?
We can't necessarily tell you how your pay compares to that of your own CEO—but enter your total 2014 compensation below and see how it measures up to that of these bigwigs.
(Minimum value: $10,000.)
| Company CEO in 2014 | How Many Times More Than Your Salary the CEO Made | |
|---|---|---|
| BoeingJim McNerney $23,500,000 |
||
| AbbvieRichard Gonzalez $17,000,000 |
||
| WalgreenGreg Wasson $16,700,000 |
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| ADMPatricia Woertz $16,300,000 |
||
| Abbott LabsMiles White $16,200,000 |
||
| Mondelez Irene Rosenfeld $15,900,000 |
||
| AllstateTom Wilson $13,000,000 |
||
| Baxter Bob Parkinson $12,800,000 |
||
| ExelonChristopher Crane $12,600,000 |
||
| United ContinentalJeff Smisek $11,300,000 |
||
| Illinois Tool WorksScott Santi $10,600,000 |
||
| Kraft FoodsTony Vernon $8,200,000 |
||
| R.R. DonnelleyTom Quinlan $8,100,000 |
||
| McDonald’s Don Thompson $7,300,000 |
||
| CDWTom Richards $6,000,000 |
||
| SearsEddie Lampert $5,700,000 |
||
| NavistarTroy Clarke $4,600,000 |