--- title: Female CEOs Out-Earn Male CEOs But Are Few in Number description: While there are fewer female CEOs in the S&P 500, they out earn their male counterparts on average, according to the Wall Street Journal. canonical: https://time.com/4799386/female-ceos-out-earn-outnumbered/ author: Samantha Cooney article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2017-05-31T17:50:51.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-04-13T09:05:41.716Z og:title: Female CEOs Make More Than Their Male Counterparts og:description: But women are still woefully outnumbered in the c-suite og:url: https://time.com/4799386/female-ceos-out-earn-outnumbered/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt27d209b0fb3f6a7c/6988cf9286f68e85276e4ee9/indra-nooyi-female-ceos.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 4288 og:image:height: 2412 og:image:alt: Indian Economy, Business And Finance og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Female CEOs Make More Than Their Male Counterparts twitter:description: But women are still woefully outnumbered in the c-suite twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt27d209b0fb3f6a7c/6988cf9286f68e85276e4ee9/indra-nooyi-female-ceos.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Female CEOs Make More Than Their Male Counterparts > Sponsored content. 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Worth Your Time is TIME's culture newsletter, published Tuesdays and Saturdays to 40,000 subscribers as of August 2026. #### Who writes TIME's culture recommendations? Culture editor Eliza Berman writes Worth Your Time, drawing on TIME's critics and culture desk. #### Is Worth Your Time free? Yes. It is a free newsletter available at time.com/newsletters.  by [Samantha Cooney](https://time.com/author/samantha-cooney/)  ## Samantha Cooney May 31, 2017 5:50 PM UTC  NEW DELHI, INDIA NOVEMBER 3, 2011: Indra Nooyi, Chairman and CEO of Pepsico, photographed at Adasia 2011\. (Photo by Pradeep Gaur/Mint via Getty Images) NEW DELHI, INDIA NOVEMBER 3, 2011: Indra Nooyi, Chairman and CEO of Pepsico, photographed at Adasia 2011\. (Photo by Pradeep Gaur/Mint via Getty Images) Mint—Hindustan Times via Getty Images  by [Samantha Cooney](https://time.com/author/samantha-cooney/)  ## Samantha Cooney May 31, 2017 5:50 PM UTC Though there are fewer [women](http://time.com/4483896/fortune-most-powerful-women-2016/) than men at the helm of major companies, [female CEOs](http://motto.time.com/4594521/paradigm-for-parity-launch-female-male-ceos-pledge-gender-equality-business/) out-earned their male counterparts in six of the last seven years, according to an [analysis from the Wall Street _Journal_](https://www.wsj.com/articles/women-ceos-dont-get-paid-less-than-men-in-big-business-they-make-more-1496223001). The analysis, which focused on CEOs who had served for an entire year at S&P 500 companies, found that 21 female CEOs earned a median compensation package of $13.8 million last year. By comparison, 382 male CEOs earned a median compensation package of $11.6 million. Among the top-earning female CEOS were Hewlett Packard’s [Meg Whitman](http://time.com/118927/meg-whitman-hp/) ($35.6 million), IBM’s [Ginni Rometty ](http://time.com/4587758/how-to-create-new-collar-jobs/?iid=sr-link5)($32.7 million) and PepsiCo‘s [Indra Nooyi](http://time.com/2954893/pepsico-ceo-women-cant-have-it-all/?iid=sr-link2) ($29.8 million). But the [highest paid male CEO](http://time.com/money/4707743/highest-paid-ceo-thomas-rutledge-charter/), Charter Communications’ Thomas Rutledge, [brought home ](https://www.wsj.com/graphics/ceopay-2017/)$98.5 million last year — over $60 million more than Whitman, the list’s top female earner. The _Journal_ attributed the trend to the fact that companies led by women outperformed companies led by men in three of the last five years and that “superstar women” usually land the corner office. “Boards don’t want to shortchange their female CEO in today’s environment, when [pay equality](http://motto.time.com/4201637/pay-gap-calculator/) is such an issue,’’ Robin Ferracone, who advises board compensation committees, told the _Journal_. But there’s still a wide gap when it comes to how many women are actually being put in charge. The number of women leading S&P 500 companies has increased in recent years, hitting an all-time [high](http://money.cnn.com/2016/09/29/investing/female-ceos-record-high/) in 2016\. But women still only account for [just over](http://www.catalyst.org/knowledge/women-sp-500-companies) 5% of leaders of the country’s largest public companies. And [a study](http://money.cnn.com/2016/09/27/news/companies/sheryl-sandberg-women-workplace-study/?iid=EL) published last year found that we’re still decades away from achieving gender equality in the office. \[[The Wall Street _Journal_](https://www.wsj.com/articles/women-ceos-dont-get-paid-less-than-men-in-big-business-they-make-more-1496223001)\] ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4799386/female-ceos-out-earn-outnumbered/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4799386/female-ceos-out-earn-outnumbered/"},"headline":"Female CEOs Make More Than Their Male Counterparts","datePublished":"2017-05-31T17:50:51.000Z","dateModified":"2026-04-13T09:05:41.716Z","description":"But women are still woefully outnumbered in the c-suite","url":"https://time.com/4799386/female-ceos-out-earn-outnumbered/","keywords":["motto"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt27d209b0fb3f6a7c/6988cf9286f68e85276e4ee9/indra-nooyi-female-ceos.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Samantha Cooney","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/samantha-cooney/"}],"articleSection":"","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt27d209b0fb3f6a7c/6988cf9286f68e85276e4ee9/indra-nooyi-female-ceos.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Indian Economy, Business And Finance","caption":"Indian Economy, Business And Finance","creditText":"Mint—Hindustan Times via Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/tag/motto/","name":"motto"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4799386/female-ceos-out-earn-outnumbered/","name":"Female CEOs Make More Than Their Male Counterparts"}}]}] ```