You’re probably ignoring the most important number in your company

Public companies in America are required by law to publish one number: the ratio between what it pays its CEO and what it pays its median worker. The rule has been in force since 2017. The number sits in every proxy statement on the exchange. Most leaders cannot tell you their own. When you do look, the numbers are not subtle. The average across the S&P 500 was 285 to 1 in 2024. At the hundred lowest-paying large firms it averaged 632 to 1. At Starbucks it once reached 6,666 to 1. In 1965 the same ratio was about 21 to 1. The easy way to read these stats is moral. A company that pays its CE...