Rubbish Check
Guardian US · 13 August 2026 (note: article date as supplied)
source“Tesla paid Elon Musk 2.5m times more as CEO than its average worker in 2025”
R5/ 10
Selective
Rubbish Rating — 1 = base fact, 10 = pure rubbish
12345678910
In short
Rubbish Talk rates the Guardian's claim that Tesla "paid" Musk 2.5m times the average worker's pay a 5/10 because the $158.3bn figure is an accounting-rule valuation of an unvested stock award tied to a decade of milestones, not money Musk has actually received.
The Verdict
Selective. The 2.5 million-to-1 ratio itself is lifted straight from the AFL-CIO's Paywatch report and is accurate, but the headline's verb, "paid", implies realised compensation. Tesla's own filing states no shares under the award had vested and the figures "rely on assumptions and projections made pursuant to accounting rules" that may not reflect what Musk ever actually collects. The article never surfaces that caveat.
What actually happened
The AFL-CIO's annual Executive Paywatch report calculated that Musk's total 2025 compensation at Tesla, valued under accounting rules at $158.3bn, was over 2.5m times as much compensation at Tesla as the company's average worker. That figure comes from the fair-value accounting disclosure of Musk's restricted-stock package, not cash he has banked. Excluding Musk, the CEO-to-worker pay gap across the S&P 500 still widened on its own terms.
Key facts
- AFL-CIO Paywatch: Musk's total compensation at Tesla was 2,522,203 times the median Tesla employee's pay in 2025.
- Excluding Musk, the average pay ratio of S&P 500 companies increased from 285-to-1 in 2024 to 312-to-1 in 2025, and the average CEO pay at S&P 500 companies increased 21%, from $18.9 million in 2024 to $22.8 million in 2025.
- Tesla's own filing on the award: no shares under that award had vested as of the filing date, and any shares that do vest are subject to an offset of $334.09 per share unless Musk elects to pay that amount in cash. The company noted the figures "rely on assumptions and projections made pursuant to accounting rules and which are not necessarily indicative of the actual value that was or may be realized."
- The underlying package requires hitting steep operational and valuation milestones: shareholders approved 12 tranches of shares to be granted if Tesla hits certain milestones over the next decade, and full vesting needs Tesla's market cap to reach roughly $8.5 trillion.
What to watch for
Watch whether future coverage distinguishes "awarded" from "paid" as tranches actually vest over the coming decade; the $158.3bn could shrink or vanish entirely if Tesla misses its market-cap and operational targets. Also watch next year's Paywatch edition for whether the Musk-inspired mega-grant structure (already cited as inspiring other S&P 500 boards) keeps pushing the "with Musk" average further from the "excluding Musk" baseline.
About this scoreThe R-Score is Rubbish Talk's editorial opinion on how far a headline's framing sits from what the underlying facts support. It is a judgement about presentation and emphasis, not an allegation that any outlet has acted dishonestly. Every figure we rely on is linked under Receipts so you can check it yourself.
Related
