While Tesla chief Elon Musk often dominates headlines with compensation that outpaces his median employee by 2.5 million times, executive pay disparity extends far beyond the electric automaker.According to the latest Executive Paywatch report from the AFL-CIO, Texas currently hosts some of the steepest CEO-to-worker income ratios in the nation.

The federation highlighted a growing national trend where corporate boards continue to approve record-setting executive packages while rank-and-file employees struggle with household living expenses. Montana and Ohio joined Texas near the top of the pay-gap rankings, while states like Alaska registered a much narrower ratio of 24-to-1.

Nationwide, the average pay ratio across S&P 500 companies climbed from 285-to-1 in 2024 to 312-to-1 in 2025, even when excluding Musk’s package from calculations.Total average executive compensation within the index jumped 21% over that single-year span, rising from $18.9 million to $22.8 million.

Across Texas, the food service and retail sectors recorded some of the most pronounced divides. Dallas-based Wingstop led non-automotive statewide disparities with a CEO-to-worker ratio of 1,590-to-1, followed by Chili’s parent company Brinker International at 1,274-to-1 and pawnshop chain FirstCash Holdings at 1,131-to-1. Other prominent Texas-headquartered giants maintaining significant gaps include CBRE Group, Hewlett Packard Enterprise, Caterpillar, and Southwest Airlines.

By broader industry sector, manufacturing led all categories with an average CEO-to-worker gap of 11,139-to-1, closely followed by arts, entertainment, and educational services.

The AFL-CIO warned that widening disparity carries broader economic risks, noting that American workers’ collective share of national income has shrunk to its lowest point since World War II.The federation cautioned that outsized executive packages incentivize short-term decision-making at the expense of long-term corporate health, while failing to equitably reward the labor that drives profitability.