Pay · 11-1011
Chief Executives earn $213,990 a year at the midpoint
Where you land matters more here than in most jobs — the top tenth earn more than 6.7 times the bottom tenth. The midpoint is $213,990.
National figures for chief executives, 11-1011, from the 2025 Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics survey.
- Read the spread, not the middle. The median is the midpoint across everyone in the occupation, most of them years into the work. A beginner starts nearer the 10th to 25th percentile, which is why the spread is published alongside it.
- What the figure counts. The figure counts base pay plus tips, commissions and production bonuses. It leaves out the self-employed, unpaid family workers, private household workers, and the value of benefits or profit sharing.
- Where you live moves it more than your resume does. National figures. A state or metro area can sit far from the national number, and that gap is usually larger than any difference a resume makes.
- Not in these numbers. Growth and annual openings are not in this dataset. They come from the separate Employment Projections tables, where an opening is a modelled ten year average and not a posted vacancy.
Source: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics, 2025. Retrieved through the BLS Public Data API on 2026-08-13. bls.gov/oes “BLS.gov cannot vouch for the data or analyses derived from these data after the data have been retrieved from BLS.gov.”
Chief executive earnings, from starting pay to the highest 10%
Pick the job, where you work and how long you have done it. The range comes from the published wage percentiles for that job.
The survey has no complete figures for that job — pick the closest title from the list.
An estimate from survey percentiles, not an offer. Employer, industry, shift and credentials move pay within and beyond this range. Full wage page for this job →
Examples
Resumes written for this line of work.
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- Chief Executive Officer Resume Template Management
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Number 7 of 788 by median pay
Better paid than 99% of the occupations in the survey.
- 5 Airline pilots, copilots and flight engineers $232,140
- 6 Dentists, All Other Specialists $224,990
- 7 Chief Executives $213,990
- 8 Industrial-Organizational Psychologists $193,950
- 9 Computer and Information Systems Managers $175,140
Chief executive pay rate, from hourly to yearly
Starts at this job’s median. Change the rate or the hours; a full-time year is 40 hours for 52 weeks.
Writing a resume for chief executives
Name the job in the builder and the duties, skills and credentials it is screened on are written in for you.
- Directed or coordinated an organization's financial or budget activities to fund operations, maximize investments, or increase efficiency.
- Conferred with board members, organization officials, or staff members to discuss issues, coordinate activities, or resolve problems.
- Prepared budgets for approval, including those for funding or implementation of programs.
This page includes information from the O*NET 31.0 Database by the U.S. Department of Labor, Employment and Training Administration (USDOL/ETA). Used under the CC BY 4.0 license. O*NET® is a trademark of USDOL/ETA. The owner of tiersi.com has modified all or some of this information. USDOL/ETA has not approved, endorsed, or tested these modifications.
Chief executive wages in each state
The 42 states where the most people do this work, of 46 with a published figure: their medians range by 2.85 times. Figures are the 2025 survey.
| State | Median a year | Where most start | 10th to 90th | Employed |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Oregon | $341,630 | $179,550 | $179,550 — $772,840 | 910 |
| Washington | $339,810 | $160,110 | $160,110 — $607,100 | 3,170 |
| Illinois | $331,920 | $133,170 | $133,170 — $589,720 | 4,620 |
| North Carolina | $314,290 | $114,210 | $114,210 — $624,990 | 1,930 |
| Virginia | $310,740 | $130,000 | $130,000 — $604,090 | 4,870 |
| New Jersey | $310,440 | $173,560 | $173,560 — $666,030 | 2,430 |
| Connecticut | $295,120 | $156,680 | $156,680 — $680,080 | 1,660 |
| Hawaii | $281,640 | $100,030 | $100,030 — $493,870 | 470 |
| South Dakota | $280,900 | $175,590 | $175,590 — $546,760 | 510 |
| New York | $257,980 | $140,410 | $140,410 — $657,630 | 8,430 |
| Texas | $257,850 | $121,130 | $121,130 — $558,550 | 8,780 |
| Michigan | $255,560 | $104,010 | $104,010 — $547,090 | 4,950 |
| Indiana | $254,180 | $97,340 | $97,340 — $494,080 | 1,820 |
| Maryland | $248,660 | $139,990 | $139,990 — $486,860 | 3,180 |
| Rhode Island | $235,360 | $113,970 | $113,970 — $561,080 | 460 |
| Pennsylvania | $232,560 | $118,810 | $118,810 — $528,200 | 8,850 |
| California | $218,600 | $85,790 | $85,790 — $486,830 | 34,700 |
| Nebraska | $214,680 | $107,200 | $107,200 — $515,360 | 2,510 |
| Iowa | $211,190 | $86,090 | $86,090 — $365,320 | 3,050 |
| Georgia | $208,180 | $57,290 | $57,290 — $517,910 | 4,080 |
| Delaware | $199,990 | $119,990 | $119,990 — $523,940 | 390 |
| Tennessee | $198,830 | $64,520 | $64,520 — $474,740 | 4,700 |
| Minnesota | $195,670 | $92,540 | $92,540 — $449,270 | 6,740 |
| Montana | $182,340 | $73,970 | $73,970 — $432,240 | 670 |
| Kentucky | $179,530 | $72,800 | $72,800 — $466,660 | 2,070 |
| Idaho | $177,210 | $103,360 | $103,360 — $403,230 | 2,920 |
| Ohio | $176,440 | $79,390 | $79,390 — $484,820 | 4,470 |
| Vermont | $175,070 | $108,300 | $108,300 — $428,080 | 360 |
| Missouri | $172,320 | $75,040 | $75,040 — $416,060 | 2,550 |
| Utah | $171,880 | $72,480 | $72,480 — $424,690 | 3,140 |
| South Carolina | $168,840 | $49,760 | $49,760 — $393,490 | 1,740 |
| Alaska | $166,710 | $75,870 | $75,870 — $428,990 | 640 |
| Alabama | $166,420 | $101,670 | $101,670 — $317,400 | 810 |
| North Dakota | $164,560 | $104,590 | $104,590 — $464,030 | 380 |
| Oklahoma | $163,790 | $68,630 | $68,630 — $387,310 | 2,390 |
| Kansas | $158,100 | $51,120 | $51,120 — $453,350 | 1,960 |
| West Virginia | $151,950 | $72,160 | $72,160 — $403,020 | 1,700 |
| Nevada | $149,770 | $58,670 | $58,670 — $517,310 | 1,370 |
| Mississippi | $139,250 | $101,930 | $101,930 — $304,040 | 310 |
| Maine | $138,770 | $73,680 | $73,680 — $401,950 | 1,580 |
| New Mexico | $123,500 | $43,710 | $43,710 — $302,440 | 100 |
| Arkansas | $119,990 | $49,830 | $49,830 — $330,480 | 3,550 |
No estimate is published for 1 states: the survey withholds a figure when too few employers report it. Nothing has been filled in for them.
Questions people ask most
What is a chief executive’s yearly income?
A chief executive makes a median of $213,990 a year (2025 survey). The middle half earn between $129,540 and $356,200.
What is a chief executive’s hourly pay rate?
The median pay rate is $102.88 an hour; the average is $269,630 a year.
What is the starting pay for a chief executive?
Starting pay is usually near the 25th percentile, $129,540 a year, and sometimes as low as the 10th, $75,700.
Which state pays chief executives the most?
Oregon, with a median of $341,630 a year.
How many people work as chief executives?
About 204,350 in the United States — number 7 of 788 occupations by median pay.
Work that pays roughly the same
Median pay within $38,850 of what chief executives earn — $213,990 a year — but not always the same spread.
- $20,040 less Industrial-Organizational Psychologists $193,950median a year 10th percentile: $79,010 90th percentile: $247,220
- $22,600 more Nurse anesthetists $236,590median a year 10th percentile: $155,250 90th percentile: $339,500
- $38,850 less Computer and Information Systems Managers $175,140median a year 10th percentile: $107,550 90th percentile: $297,510