The Gap Between Hawaiʻi’s Top CEO Salaries And Regular Worker Pay
Public companies have to report executive compensation and how that compares with median worker pay.
Scott Seu, the CEO of Hawaiian Electric Industries, earned more than $6.5 million last year — 58 times more than the utility’s median employee.
That included a $1.7 million bonus, which Seu returned following criticism related to the Lahaina wildfire. Seu could still get that money back, but even without it the pay disparity is still almost 43 to 1.
Publicly traded companies are required to disclose these kinds of ratios to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission as a requirement of the 2010 Dodd-Frank Act, a post-financial crisis reform package.
Recent filings for Hawaiʻi-based companies show the greatest CEO-to-worker disparity is at First Hawaiian Bank where CEO Robert Harrison made about $5.3 million last year. The bank’s median employee made $62,668, resulting in an 86:1 ratio.
Related: It’s No Surprise That CEOs Make More Than Other Employees. But How Much Is Too Much?
The pay disparities are much more extreme, though, for mainland-based companies with a presence in Hawaiʻi.
For example, the CEO of Ross Stores, Inc., which operates Ross Dress for Less stores, raked in just under $17 million in 2024, according to the company’s filing. The median employee — a part-time hourly retail store associate, some of whom are seasonal — made only $9,602. That’s a ratio of 1,770:1.
The CEO of Costco earned more than $12 million during the 2024 fiscal year, the company’s filing states. The median full-time, non-seasonal worker made about $64,000, resulting in a pay ratio of 192:1.
Marriott International, Inc.’s top executive was paid just under $22 million in 2024, according to its filing. The median employee made about $46,000 — a ratio of 475:1.
A group of Hawaiʻi lawmakers in 2021 proposed a tax on companies whose top executives collect more than 100 times what their median employee earns. However, the bill was dead on arrival. It never got a hearing.
