Memphis-area public-company CEOs earned 215 times median workers, highlighting widening executive pay ratios in filings
What the 215-to-1 figure represents
A review of executive-compensation disclosures shows that chief executives at major Memphis-area publicly traded companies received total compensation valued at roughly 215 times the median pay of their companies’ workers. The ratio is drawn from federally required pay-ratio reporting that compares a company’s CEO compensation with the pay of its median employee.
The pay-ratio figure is not a direct comparison of hourly wages to salary alone. CEO compensation commonly includes base pay, cash incentives and long-term equity awards, and the value reported can fluctuate widely year to year based on stock awards and company performance measures. Median worker pay, meanwhile, reflects the compensation of the employee whose pay sits at the midpoint of a company’s workforce distribution and can be influenced by part-time work, seasonal employment, geographic mix and the share of employees working outside the U.S.
How companies calculate the ratio
Public companies are required to report a CEO-to-median-employee pay ratio in annual proxy materials. The disclosures typically describe how the company identified the median employee (including whether contractors are excluded), the measurement period used and the components of compensation included. Companies are allowed flexibility in methodology within the regulatory framework, which can lead to differences in comparability across firms.
As a result, a pay ratio is best understood as a standardized snapshot within a single company rather than a precise like-for-like measure across different employers or industries. Companies with large workforces in retail, logistics or other lower-wage sectors often report higher ratios than employers with more uniformly paid professional workforces.
How Memphis compares with broader U.S. disclosures
National pay-ratio reporting has documented large disparities between CEO compensation and median worker pay at large U.S. corporations. In the most recent annual cycle of such analyses, average CEO compensation at S&P 500 firms rose in 2024, and the reported average CEO-to-worker ratio increased from the prior year.
The Memphis-area 215-to-1 figure sits below some national headline ratios seen in industries with very low median pay, but it remains far above historical norms for CEO-to-worker compensation relationships and underscores the scale of the gap that pay-ratio disclosures were designed to make visible.
Key factors that can move the ratio up or down
Equity awards: Large stock grants or option awards can make a single year’s CEO compensation appear substantially higher.
Workforce composition: Higher proportions of part-time, seasonal or lower-paid roles tend to reduce the median employee pay figure and raise the ratio.
Geographic footprint: Companies with significant international operations may report lower median pay depending on local wage levels and currency effects.
Measurement choices: Permitted approaches to identifying the median employee and defining compensation can affect results.
Why the disclosures matter for governance and labor discussions
Pay-ratio reporting has become a reference point in debates over corporate governance, executive incentives and workforce compensation. Boards and investors often cite retention and performance alignment when setting executive pay, while worker advocates point to ratios as evidence of widening income disparities inside large organizations.
Pay-ratio disclosures offer a consistent, recurring metric that allows the public to track how executive compensation changes relative to the middle of a company’s workforce over time.
For Memphis-area employers with national footprints, the 215-to-1 ratio places renewed attention on how compensation strategy, labor mix and equity-based executive pay interact in the region’s largest corporate brands.