How Does Your Pay Stack Up?
The national median salary for a small business CEO is $233,500. That’s with an average of about 90 employees in the company. The information comes from a survey by Salary.com.
The US News and World Report adds this information about the survey:
• CEOs in finance, construction, and real estate tend to make even more than their peers. Small-biz owners in the rental and leasing industry, for example, brought in an average of $320,000 this year. (The average salary for their assistants? $46,100.)
• The more their companies earn, not surprisingly, the more CEOs take home. CEOs of businesses with $25 million to $35 million in revenue earned 113 percent of the national median salary (about $263,000). For owners with more than $50 million in revenue, the number jumped to 159 percent (about $371,000).
Of course, there are plenty of owners of small businesses who plow the profits back into the company and take out significantly less in salary. My guess is that more business owners plow their money back into the business, than take out large salaries — especially when the business is young or it is under 20 employees.
