2026年代理季开始之际，去年有四分之一的大型美国公司在薪酬报告上遭遇了有意义的反对，表明对高管薪酬的不满已进入主流。争议在2025年底达到高峰：特斯拉提出一项对埃隆·马斯克可能高达1万亿美元的薪酬方案，挪威主权财富基金、CalPERS和纽约市退休系统均公开反对。
标普500公司CEO平均年薪为1900万美元，是普通员工薪酬的285倍，并且到1月2日早上6:44就已赚到普通员工全年收入。自1992年以来，CEO平均薪酬从400万美元几乎增长五倍，而普通员工薪酬仅增长约三分之一；同期标普500企业中位市值从30亿美元升至400亿美元，使CEO将公司价值提升1%的潜在增量从3000万美元扩大到4亿美元。
文本认为高薪的核心逻辑是可扩展影响力与激励设计，而非单纯“高薪是否过大”。马斯克方案的1万亿美元是上限而非期望值，因为需将特斯拉市值推至8.5万亿美元（约为当前的6倍）；研究还显示，持有较高股权的CEO可因果性地带来每年高出4至10个百分点的股东回报，但像2万亿、2.5万亿美元这类离散门槛会扭曲行为，因此更优做法是以5至10年锁定期股票为主并强调“是否挣得”而非“是否很多”。
As the 2026 proxy season begins, one quarter of large American firms faced meaningful opposition to pay reports last year, showing that discontent over executive compensation has moved into the mainstream. The debate peaked in late 2025 when Tesla sought approval for an Elon Musk package worth up to $1 trillion, with Norway’s sovereign wealth fund, CalPERS, and New York City retirement systems all publicly opposing it.
The average S&P 500 CEO earns $19 million annually, 285 times average worker pay, and has already made a typical worker’s full-year income by 6:44 a.m. on January 2. Since 1992, average CEO pay rose from $4 million to nearly five times that level while worker pay rose only about one third; over the same period, median S&P 500 firm value increased from $3 billion to $40 billion, so a 1% CEO-driven value gain scaled from $30 million to $400 million.
The text argues that the central rationale for high pay is scalable impact plus incentive design, not simply whether headline pay is “too large.” Musk’s $1 trillion figure is a maximum rather than an expected payout because it requires Tesla to reach an $8.5 trillion market cap (about 6 times current levels); research also finds that CEOs with substantial ownership deliver 4-10 percentage points higher annual shareholder returns causally, while discrete hurdles such as $2 trillion and $2.5 trillion can distort behavior, making long-vesting equity over 5-10 years a cleaner alignment around whether pay is earned.
Source: Dizzyingly high CEO pay is fine. It just needs to be earned
Subtitle: What’s changed is not the level of talent but its importance, writes Alex Edmans
Dateline: 2月 19, 2026 04:17 上午