Healthcare CEOs Rolled Back 2023 Salaries, But Still Earned $3.5 Billion

Healthcare stocks plummeted in 2023 compared to the rest of the market. Companies missed their profit targets. Some CEOs even lost their bonuses.

But the biggest names in healthcare still earned a combined $3.5 billion last year, up from $4 billion in 2022. The average CEO took home $11 million, while the median was $4.1 million. These figures are compared to an average of $13 million and an average of $4.3 million in 2022.

Even in a bad year, the average healthcare CEO earned 51 times the average American household income, which was approx $81,000 in 2023. The leaders of pharmaceutical companies and medical device manufacturers remained at the top while their patented products reaped the biggest windfalls.