The highest-paid CEO globally often fluctuates, but recent reports highlight Elon Musk (Tesla) with massive stock-based pay (over $1 billion in some years), while for Australian-listed companies, Robert Thomson (News Corp) led with ~$42M in 2024, and Bill Beament (Develop Global) topped realized pay with ~$59.6M in 2025 due to options. Tech CEOs like Tim Cook (Apple) and Hock Tan (Broadcom) are consistently high earners, often in the hundreds of millions, driven by substantial equity awards.
By the metric of realised pay, Bill Beament of Develop Global is #1; while reported pay once again earns Macquarie Group's Shemara Wikramanayake the title of highest-paid CEO in Australia. Across Australia's top 300 chief executives, the average compensation has been raised by approximately 10% over the past year.
Elon Musk. Elon Musk continues to dominate the global wealth rankings, holding firm as the richest CEO — and person — on the planet.
Coles Group's CEO is Leah Weckert, appointed in May 2023, has a tenure of 2.67 years. total yearly compensation is A$5.42M, comprised of 36.4% salary and 63.6% bonuses, including company stock and options. directly owns 0.044% of the company's shares, worth A$12.58M.
Tim Cook's 2025 Salary and Pay Compensation
Here's the breakdown: Salary: $3,000,000.
Starbucks CEO Brian Niccol earns over $46,000 per hour, or nearly $96 million annually—leading the retail industry.
Google CEO Sundar Pichai's salary varies significantly due to large, infrequent stock grants, but his base pay is $2 million, with total compensation reaching $10.73 million in 2024 and a massive $226 million in 2022 (from a major triennial grant). His compensation includes stock awards, bonuses, and perks, plus substantial spending on personal security, which was over $8 million in 2024.
Jobs paying $500k+ in Australia are primarily in highly specialized fields like Medical Specialists (surgeons, anaesthetists), Senior Finance/Executive Roles (CFO, Head of Treasury, Investment Directors), and high-end Sales & Construction Management (Elite Stockbrokers, Senior Project Managers/Estimators in complex sectors). While roles like Neurosurgeon and Ophthalmologist average well over $500k, achieving this in other sectors often involves performance-based bonuses or leading major projects, with opportunities listed on job boards like SEEK and Jora.
McDonald's Corporation's CEO Salary
Christopher Kempczinski Chairman, President and CEO at McDonald's Corporation, received a total compensation of $18.20 M in 2024. Ian Borden Executive Vice President and Global CFO at McDonald's Corporation, received a total compensation of $6.31 M in 2024.
Rinehart, who has supported swimmers for 30 years through Hancock Prospecting including direct funding, scholarships and career transitions, has offered $20,000 per individual gold and $5000 per person for relay gold. Silver medals are worth $15,000 (or $3750pp for relays) and bronze medals $10,000 ($2500pp in relays).
Elon Musk is widely predicted to be the first trillionaire, with projections placing him to reach this milestone around 2027-2028, driven by potential growth in Tesla, SpaceX, and AI ventures, especially following a key shareholder vote approving a massive stock option package. Other contenders include Gautam Adani and Jensen Huang, but Musk currently leads the race.
Jobs paying $200k+ in Australia are common in specialized fields like Medicine (Surgeons, Anaesthetists, Specialists), Technology (Data Scientists, Cloud Engineers), Engineering, Executive Management (C-Suite, Directors), Law, and high-end Sales, with significant opportunities also in the Mining sector, alongside specialized roles in Finance, Construction Management, and Healthcare Administration, often requiring significant experience or niche skills.
Yes, $130k is a very good salary in Australia, placing you well above the median income and in the top earnings bracket, but whether it's "comfortable" depends heavily on your location (high-cost cities like Sydney/Melbourne vs. regional areas) and lifestyle, as high rents can still strain finances, though it generally allows for a solid middle-class life with budgeting.
Australia's richest woman Gina Rinehart has revealed how much she will be paying the swimmers who shone brightest at last week's World Championships. #9News.
Niccol's pay includes a base salary of $61,538, a bonus of $5 million, and an additional $90 million in stock awards. The CEO was hired in September 2024, which means he was paid that amount for just four months of work. According to the AFL-CIO report, the typical Starbucks worker's pay in 2024 was less than $15,000.
August 5, 2025
Tesla has again cemented Elon Musk's status as the highest-paid CEO in history, granting him a new $29 billion compensation package—now structured as 96 million restricted shares.
Russell Weiner of Domino's Pizza: $8.94 million
Domino's Pizza CEO Russell Weiner made $8.9 million last year, which included a base salary of $913,462, plus $4.4 million in stock awards, $1.4 million in options, and nearly $2 million in non-equity incentives.
In 2022 the median income in Australia was $65,000 a year according to the Australian Bureau of Statistics. Anyone making less than this amount would be considered working class. Anyone making more than $137,000 falls in the top 10% which is considered upper class.
Top 15 Best Paying Jobs In The World 2026 (Inc Salaries)
9 jobs that pay $100K per year without a degree
How much does a Billion Dollar make? As of Jan 10, 2026, the average annual pay for a Billion Dollar in the United States is $144,999 a year. Just in case you need a simple salary calculator, that works out to be approximately $69.71 an hour. This is the equivalent of $2,788/week or $12,083/month.
Sundar Pichai. Pichai Sundararajan (born June 10, 1972), better known as Sundar Pichai (pronounced: /ˈsʊndɜːr pɪˈtʃeɪ/), is an Indian-American business executive. He is the chief executive officer (CEO) of Alphabet Inc. and its subsidiary Google.