Carlyle CEO's pay soars above private equity firm's median employee salary

The Carlyle Group Inc.'s gap between CEO compensation and median employee pay was the widest among US-based, publicly traded private equity and venture capital firms in 2023.

Carlyle's 2023 median employee salary of $230,750 was the eighth highest among peer firms, according to S&P Global Market Intelligence data. CEO Harvey Schwartz was awarded total adjusted compensation worth 813 times that amount last year, up 422% from the 155.7 ratio in 2022.

Carlyle's median employee salary was slightly lower than the $232,875 median across all listed US private equity firms. But the employee-to-CEO pay ratio for the listed private equity firms was 27.4 times the median, far lower than Carlyle's, according to S&P Global Market Intelligence data.

Carlyle, along with Apollo Global Management Inc., Blackstone Inc. and KKR & Co. Inc., is one of the four largest listed public equity firms by assets under management.

Blackstone ranked third for the largest private equity CEO-to-median employee pay ratio and KKR came in at No. 4, while Apollo's was the industry's 13th Largest in 2023.

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TPG Inc. reported the second-highest CEO-to-median employee pay ratio. The firm's employees received a median salary of $290,997, and TPG CEO Jon Winkelried received compensation worth 682.8 times that amount in 2023.

Cannae Holdings Inc. had a CEO-to-median pay ratio of 0-to-1 in 2023. Its employees received a median salary of $10,176 last year.

SuRo reports highest median pay

SuRo Capital Corp. recorded median compensation of $412,735 in 2023, the highest among US-listed private equity firms. Its CEO received salary 7.2 times the median amount.

Equus Total Return Inc. had the second-highest median salary at $321,313, while TPG came in third.