Elon Musk’s status as the world’s first trillionaire, following SpaceX’s record-breaking IPO, has reignited conversations around the growing pay gap between company leaders and the workforce. According to a compensation survey by the Associated Press, the average CEO compensation package increased 6 percent in 2025 to $17.7 million, while wages have barely kept up with inflation since 2020. Tech jobs are harder to come by, with artificial intelligence often blamed for disrupting the job market and companies labeling the technology as the reason for mass layoffs. SpaceX has paid Musk a base salary of $54,080 since 2019, but the real money comes from his shares; the filing notes Musk is being awarded 1.3 billion Class B shares, which become available upon hitting performance targets including forming a Mars colony with at least 1 million people, generating 100 terawatts of compute per year with orbital data centers, and raising SpaceX’s valuation to reach “market capitalization milestones.” In the aftermath of SpaceX’s historical IPO, these shares are likely worth hundreds of billions of dollars. Tesla does not give Musk a base salary, tying his earnings entirely to performance.