What a CEO makes can be staggering from the seat of a rank-and-file employee, whose pay is typically in the five-to-six digit range.
Four of the highest-paid CEOs in pharma made more than 200 times that of the median employee at their companies in 2024. Johnson & Johnson’s Joaquin Duato topped the list, earning nearly 300 times the healthcare giant’s average staffer.
What a CEO makes can be staggering from the seat of a rank-and-file employee. These executives have a big job as the face of a company and typically eight-figure compensation packages to match. Meanwhile, the average employee typically pulls five figures, or six if lucky.
Duato’s $24.3 million pay is 293 times higher than J&J’s median employee pay of $83,000. It’s the largest gap on a list of the top pharma companies ranked by market cap. Following Duato is Pfizer’s Albert Bourla, with his $24.6 million compensation clocking in at 269 times larger than the median employee’s $91,507. Eli Lilly’s David Ricks and Merck’s Robert Davis ranked third and fourth with ratios of 243 to 1 and 219 to 1, respectively.
At the other end of the list are companies that pay their employees top dollar. Gilead’s Daniel Day is the fifth highest paid CEO in pharma with $23.7 million in compensation last year, but his median employee received $244,296 for a relatively low ratio of 97 to 1. Vertex similarly paid Reshma Kewalramani $21.5 million while her staff’s median compensation was $245,708, for a ratio of 88 to 1.
The lowest-paid employee base was Sanofi, where the median compensation was just $68,212, compared to CEO Paul Hudson’s $11 million package for 2024, for a ratio of 166 to 1.
The average median pay across all companies was $135,091. BioSpace recently recorded a 9% average salary increase between 2023 and 2024, the largest jump for professionals in the industry since 2021. Employees in Oregon and Washington reported the highest salaries, followed by those in California.
