Rick Smith, the founder and chief executive of Axon Enterprises, is the $164 million man.

He claimed the biggest pay package among US chief executives in 2024, valued at $164.5 million, an Associated Press survey has shown.

AP said that Axon, which makes Taser stun guns and body cameras, grew revenue by more than 30 per cent for three straight years and posted record annual net income of $377 million in 2024. Axon’s shares more than doubled last year after rising more than 50 per cent in 2023.

Almost all of Smith’s pay package consists of stock awards, which he can only receive if the company meets targets tied to its stock price and operations for the period from 2024 to 2030. Companies are required to assign a value to the stock awards when they are granted.

Other top earners in the survey include Lawrence Culp, chief executive of what is now GE Aerospace ($87.4 million); Tim Cook at Apple ($74.6 million); David Gitlin at Carrier Global ($65.6 million); and Ted Sarandos at Netflix ($61.9 million). The bulk of those pay packages consisted of stock or options awards.

AP said a spike in corporate profits and a banner year for the stock market drove compensation packages for S&P 500 company chief executives up by nearly 10 per cent last year.

Shareholders increasingly want chief executive compensation more closely tied to performance and they are getting their wish.

The survey included pay data for 344 executives at S&P 500 companies who have served at least two full consecutive fiscal years at their companies.

The median pay rose to $17.1 million up 9.7 per cent, while the median employee at companies in the survey earned $85,419, reflecting a 1.7 per cent increase year-over-year.

Chief executives faced a number of difficulties over the period, including inflation, high interest rates and declining consumer confidence.

The stock market’s main benchmark, the S&P 500, rose more than 23 per cent last year. Profits for companies in the index rose more than 9 per cent.

“2024 was expected to be a strong year, so the [nearly] 10 per cent increases are commensurate with the timing of the pay decisions,” said Dan Laddin, a partner at Compensation Advisory Partners.

Sarah Anderson, who directs the Global Economy Project at the progressive Institute for Policy Studies, said there have been some recent “long-overdue” increases in worker pay, especially for those at the bottom of the wage scale.

But she said too many workers in the world’s richest countries still struggled to pay their bills.

Overall, wages and benefits netted by private-sector workers in the US rose 3.6 per cent through 2024, according to the US Labour Department.

The average worker in the US makes $65,460 a year. That figure rises to $92,000 when benefits such as healthcare and other insurance are included.

For the 27 women who made the AP survey — the highest number dating back to 2014 — median pay rose 10.7 per cent to $20 million. That compares with a 9.7 per cent increase to $16.8 million for their male counterparts.

The highest earner among female chief executives was Judith Marks of Otis Worldwide, with a pay package valued at $42.1 million.

The company, known for its elevators and escalators, has had operating profit above $2 billion for four straight years. About $35 million of Marks’s compensation was in stock awards.

Other top earners among female chief executives were Jane Fraser of Citigroup ($31.1 million); Lisa Su of Advanced Micro Devices ($31 million), Mary Barra at General Motors ($29.5 million); and Laura Alber at Williams-Sonoma ($27.7 million).

Christy Glass, a professor of sociology at Utah State University who studies equity, inclusion and leadership, said while there may be a few more women on the top paid chief executive list, overall equity trends were stagnating, particularly as companies cut back on DEI programmes.

“There are maybe a couple more names on the list but we’re really not moving the needle significantly,” she said.

Other notable chief executives did not meet the criteria for inclusion in the survey.

Starbucks’ Brian Niccol received a pay package valued at $95.8 million but he only took over as chief executive on September 9. Nvidia’s Jensen Huang saw his compensation grow to $49.9 million but the company filed its proxy after April 30.

At half the companies in AP’s annual pay survey, it would take the worker at the middle of the company’s pay scale 192 years to make what the chief executive did in one. Companies have been required to disclose this so-called pay ratio since 2018.

The pay ratio tends to be highest at companies in industries where wages are typically low. For instance, at cruise line company Carnival Corp, its chief executive earned nearly 1,300 times the median pay of $16,900 for its workers.

McDonald’s chief executive makes about 1,000 times what a worker making the company’s median pay does. Both companies have operations that span numerous countries.