Ever wondered how long it takes the world’s most powerful CEOs to earn what you make in an entire year? 

Our new  earnings calculator puts their incomes into real-time perspective, and the numbers don’t just feel unreal… They disrupt your perception of scale.

Simply enter your annual pay into the calculator, click “Compare Your Salary,” and watch how quickly each Fortune 500 CEO reaches it, the results are eye-opening and highlight just how steep executive compensation has grown.

These superstars aren’t just high earners, but they operate on a financial frequency that turns minutes into millions. And when you see their earnings counted down to the second, the gap between the average U.S. salary and top-tier executive pay becomes impossible to ignore.

Tim Cook earns more in a day than most americans do in a year

At the very top is Apple CEO Timothy D. Cook, with an annual compensation of $74.6 million.  This puts him in a class all his own, earning $2.36 per second or $204,399 per day, while the average U.S. worker’s annual salary is $62,088, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS). In other words, Cook earns the average yearly salary in just around seven hours, less than a single workday for most Americans…

For example, while you’ve been reading this blog, Cook has already accumulated around $11,333. He also earns a Starbucks latte in just 2.4 seconds, a dinner in 42 seconds, an iPhone 17 Pro in under 8 minutes, and a MacBook Pro in 21 minutes.

However, even with his massive paycheck, Cook still faces tough market pressure. After the iPhone 17 launch, Apple’s value dropped by over $50 billion as investors worried the new lineup didn’t offer enough innovation or meaningful AI upgrades, according to Businessday NG and The Business Standard.

It will be interesting to see how those losses affect Cook’s earnings in 2025.

From Cook to Buffett: How much the top CEOs earn per second

Across the top 10, these figures show just how extreme the U.S. income gap has become.

Even beyond Tim Cook, the pay gap between top CEOs and average workers is staggering. Exxon Mobil’s Darren W. Woods makes $33.6 million a year ($1.07 per second), Douglas McMillon earns $27.4 million ($0.87 per second), and Andrew P. Witty takes in $26.3 million ($0.84 per second). Other leaders still earn far more than most Americans do in an hour.

How long does it take for each leader to earn the average salary in the US?

Scrolling up, you can see exactly how fast these CEOs make the average American salary, and the numbers are wild. 

Tim Cook earns it in just 7 hours and 12 minutes, Darren Woods in 16 hours and 2 minutes, and Doug McMillon in almost 20 hours . Andrew Witty follows at 0.7 days, Karen Lynch at almost 2 days, and Brian Tyler at 1.2 days. 

Steven Collis reaches it in 1.3 days, Sundar Pichai in 2.1 days, and Andy Jassy in 14.2 days. At the slowest pace, Warren Buffett takes 55.6 days to match the average worker’s annual pay.

It’s a striking reminder of just how fast executive pay stacks up and how far ahead top earners are from the typical American worker.

Methodology

Using publicly available data, we broke down the annual compensation of the top 10 Fortune 500 leaders into per-second, per-day, and per-year figures. These were compared to the average U.S. salary to show how quickly each leader earns it. A custom calculator lets users see how fast CEOs earn any salary they input.