All companies · US · fiscal 2024

Costco

262times · chief executive pay ÷ median employee pay verified

It would take Costco's median employee 262 years to earn what its chief executive earned in one. That is below the 312 to 1 average across the S&P 500 in 2025.

Median employeeCostco's SEC-identified median employee

$47,092

A 20 to 1 capRebecca Ledger model

$941,840

Ron Vachrischief executive, fiscal 2024

$12,229,741

Same industry as Walmart, roughly a quarter of the ratio, and a median worker paid about $16,500 more. Vachris started as a forklift driver at Price Club. This is the latest ratio confirmed from a primary filing; fiscal 2025 will be updated when verified.

Show the evidence

Source: Costco, SEC Form DEF 14A, filed December 2024 — open this company's SEC filing list
Chief executive total compensation verified: $12,229,741 — Ron Vachris, as reported in the Summary Compensation Table
Median employee total compensation verified: $47,092 — Costco's SEC-identified median employee
Ratio verified: $12,229,741 ÷ $47,092 = 260. This ratio is disclosed by the company itself in the filing.
Retrieved: 2026-09-07
Methodology caution: SEC rules let each company choose how it identifies its median employee — whether part-time and seasonal pay is annualized, which countries are included. Ratios are exact within a company and approximate between companies. Full methodology.

The numbers

$12,229,741

Chief executive verified

Ron Vachris, fiscal 2024 total compensation

$47,092

Median employee verified

Costco's SEC-identified median employee

262:1

Ratio verified

S&P 500 average is 312:1

Pay Fairness score calculated

0–100, from the ratio alone. Formula

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Employee ownership insufficient data

Not disclosed. No company on the ledger yet publishes what share of its stock is held by rank-and-file employees. That silence is itself the finding.

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Buybacks & net income insufficient data

Not yet collected for this company. Want to add it? Take the Rebecca Challenge.

What 20 to 1 would look like proposal

This is a Rebecca Ledger model, not a prediction and not something the company has said or done. It caps chief-executive pay at twenty times this company's own median employee, and changes nothing else.

Chief executive today verified	$12,229,741
Under a 20× cap proposal	$941,840 (20 × $47,092)
Difference calculated	$11,287,901
What the difference equals calculated	about 240 more employees paid at this company's own median

The arithmetic is the whole model: one year of the difference, divided by one median salary. It assumes nothing about taxes, share price, or whether the company would do it. It is meant to make a large number legible, not to predict a decision.

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Wrong about any of this? Send a correction — corrections are published, dated, and never quietly edited.