The salary of a CEO in the United States varies depending on several factors, including experience, location, education level, marketing trend and company sizes.
As of April 01, 2025, the average hourly pay of CEO in the United States is $349. While Salary.com is seeing that CEO salary in the US can go up to $421 or down to $275, but most earn between $310 and $387. Salary.com shows the average base salary (core compensation), as well as the average total cash compensation for the job of CEO in the United States.
| Annual Salary |
Monthly Pay |
Weekly Pay |
Hourly Wage |
|
| 75th Percentile | $387 | $32 | $7 | $0 |
| Average | $349 | $29 | $7 | $0 |
| 25th Percentile | $310 | $26 | $6 | $0 |
As of April 01, 2025, Salary.com is seeing that an entry-level CEO with under 1 year experience makes about $676,339. With less than 2 years of experience, a mid-level CEO makes around $683,548. After 2-4 years, the CEO pay rises to about $693,160. Those senior CEO with 5-8 years of experience earn roughly $707,578, and those CEO having 8 years or more experience is expected to earn about $725,600 on average.
| Levels | Salary |
|---|---|
| Entry Level CEO | $676,339 |
| Intermediate Level CEO | $683,548 |
| Senior Level CEO | $693,160 |
| Specialist Level CEO | $707,578 |
| Expert Level CEO | $725,600 |
| Entry Level | 7% |
| Mid Level | 6% |
| Senior Level | 4% |
| Top Level | 2% |
| Experienced | 0% |
Salaries in the United States can vary significantly from state to state due to a multitude of factors, including cost of living, local economic conditions, and industry presence.
For example, as of April 01, 2025, the average yearly salary of CEO is $800,300 in California and in Massachusetts, the average annual salary goes to $789,700. While in New Jersey, a CEO earns $786,500 per year.
What Am I Worth?
Salaries in the United States can vary significantly from city to city due to a multitude of factors, including cost of living, local economic conditions, and industry presence.
For example, as of April 01, 2025, the average yearly salary of CEO in San Francisco, CA is $906,200 and in New York, NY, the average annual salary goes to $840,900. While a CEO earns $809,300 per year in Boston, MA.
For those exploring the changing dynamics of CEO salaries, Salary.com offers detailed insights through our Job Trending in CA Labor Market analysis. As of April 01, 2025, our research highlights a notable shift in CEO compensation over the past six years. For instance, the median salary has moved from $273,062 in 2023 to about $269,796 in 2024 (for a comprehensive analysis of CEO salary trends, click here). It's crucial to consider several elements, including geographical location, experience level, industry demand, and economic development, as they play a significant role in influencing salary variations.
Salary.com job board provides millions of CEO information for you to search for. Click on search button below to see CEO job openings or enter a new job title here.
Here are companies hiring for CEO and their salaries, click below for more details.
| Core Compensation | ||||
| Core Compensation | Median | % of Total | ||
| Base Salary | $725,600 | 82.2% | ||
| Bonus | $0 | 0.0% | ||
| Value of Benefits | ||||
| Core Compensation | Median | % of Total | ||
| Social Security | $20,974 | 2.4% | ||
| 401K/403B | $10,500 | 1.2% | ||
| Disability | $14,512 | 1.6% | ||
| Healthcare | $8,352 | 0.9% | ||
| Pension | $13,500 | 1.5% | ||
| Time Off | $89,305 | 10.1% | ||
| Total Compensation | $882,743 | 100% | ||
| Degree Level | % of user with this level of education |
|---|---|
| No Diploma | 1.4% |
| High School | 6.8% |
| Associates | 4.6% |
| Bachelors | 36.9% |
| Masters | 40.3% |
| Doctorate | 10.0% |
What Am I Worth?
The CEO organizes leadership and staff to meet strategic goals. Responsible for the short and long-term profitability and growth of the company. Being a CEO identifies and delivers value to stakeholders. Ensures appropriate governance and controls. In addition, CEO may require an advanced degree or its equivalent. Responsible for the development of functional or business unit strategy for the entire organization. Defines corporate vision and strategy establishes company direction and focus. Executes multiple high impact initiatives to achieve overall corporate goals. Working as a CEO typically requires 15+ years of related experience.
Specify the abilities and skills that a person needs in order to carry out the specified job duties. Each competency has five to ten behavioral assertions that can be observed, each with a corresponding performance level (from one to five) that is required for a particular job.
Leadership: Knowledge of and ability to employ effective strategies that motivate and guide other members within our business to achieve optimum results.
Health Care: Health care or healthcare is the improvement of health via the prevention, diagnosis, treatment, amelioration, or cure of disease, illness, injury, and other physical and mental impairments in people.
Childcare: Child care, otherwise known as day care, is the care and supervision of a child or multiple children at a time. Child care is a broad topic that covers a wide spectrum of professionals, institutions, contexts, activities, and social and cultural conventions.
