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Top five travel tips from "The Points Guy"

By Caitlin O'Kane

December 10, 2019 / 1:46 PM EST / CBS News

Even if you don't know who "The Points Guy" is, it's easy enough to figure out his obsession: Credit card points, frequent flyer points, hotel rewards points, the list goes on. His real name is Brian Kelly and he's transformed his love for travel – and points – into a successful business.

He's founder and CEO of thepointsguy.com, a highly-trafficked website that offers tips on traveling and maximizing points. CBS News spoke with the The Points Guy – a.k.a. "TPG" – at the annual TPG Awards and asked him for his five best tips for travelers:

1. Get Global Entry

"Number one, if you don't have it already, [get] Global Entry," Kelly said. Global Entry, the international version of TSA Pre-check, is a travel program that grants expedited entry into airports. Travelers who qualify don't have to wait in long security lines – they get to wait in a shorter pre-check line. Global Entry costs $100 for five years, Kelly said.

For those who really want to expedite the airport experience, there's Clear. "Now in New York, all three airports have Clear," Kelly said. "Clear gets you ahead of the pre-check lane." Sixty airports currently accept Clear, according to the program's website. The accelerated entry program is also available at some stadiums, so fans who qualify can also skip long security lines at sporting events and concerts.

2. Optimize points

"Getting a credit card that gives you points for what you spend every day, that's still the best way to earn points these days," Kelly said. The Points Guy website offers advice for choosing the best credit card for your personal spending and points goals.

3. Search for cheap flights

The best way to find the cheapest flights is through Google, Kelly said. "Google Flights is my favorite," he said. "They'll give you a calendar view of the cheapest flights." Using the calendar view and staying flexible with your dates allows you to pick the cheapest travel days.

4. When you see a good deal, book it

"We cover at least two to three flight deals a day. We've seen $200 to $300 to Asia, $200 to Europe, so a lot of cheap fare deals going on. When you see a good deal, book it. You usually have 24 hours to cancel," Kelly advised. In other words, don't hesitate. Book now, think later.

5. Buy in shopping portals 

"It's the holiday season, when you shop online, you must earn frequent flyer miles," Kelly said. The best way to earn extra points while shopping is to use airlines' shopping portals. "You can earn airline miles and hotel points in addition to the points you earn on your credit card," he said. 

Several airlines offer these shopping portals. In the JetBlue portal, most stores offer three JetBlue points for every dollar spent. So you're not only earning credit card points on your online purchases, but airline miles as well. 

"Most people don't know about it, it's as simple as putting in your frequent flyer number. It stores a cookie on your computer then you earn tons of miles. It's a no-brainer," Kelly said.

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UPDATED: California lifting mandatory stay-at-home orders; quarantines remain for visitors

Editor's Note

Editor's note: This post was updated with new lockdown measures on Jan. 25, 2021.

California is lifting its mandatory state-wide stay-at-home order, although many parts of the state haven't yet lifted strict coronavirus control measures. Several counties will keep mandatory quarantines in place and are still dissuading tourism.

It comes as the number of infections and hospitalizations are finally declining in the state, and as much of the state has seen improved ICU capacity and as vaccinations have begun rolling out.

In fact, some counties are announcing softening of stay-at-home orders, including San Francisco.

Mayor London Breed on Twitter said, "We will be moving forward with some limited re-openings, including outdoor dining and personal services."

California has been dealing with a major resurgence of coronavirus cases that overwhelmed its emergency rooms. California Governor Gavin Newsom issued an authorization back in December for local governments to issue stay-at-home orders that match the strictest shutdowns back in March.

Bay Area health officials fully implemented the state's new stay-home order which virtually shut down much of the Bay Area. Now, some Bay Area restaurants will reopen for outdoor dining and even some parks and zoos will reopen (outside only). Hotels are able to accept guests again as well.

Still, lots of areas remain on lockdown.

Los Angeles, where the outbreak is particularly bad, is now also dealing with a faster-spreading variant first discovered in the U.K. Another variant first found in Denmark may also be spreading in Southern and Northern California.

Some counties have gone so far as to require quarantines for anyone coming from more than 150 miles away. Here's everything you need to know.

For more TPG news delivered each morning to your inbox, sign up for our daily newsletter .

Related: State-by-state guide to coronavirus reopening

Regional restrictions

California is imposing stay-at-home orders on a region-by-region basis depending on the stresses on local ICU beds.

If 85% of intensive care beds in a region's hospitals are full, the orders go into effect.

California is divided into five regions:

• Northern California: Del Norte, Glenn, Humboldt, Lake, Lassen, Mendocino, Modoc, Shasta, Siskiyou, Tehama, Trinity
• Bay Area: Alameda, Contra Costa, Marin, Monterey, Napa, San Francisco, San Mateo, Santa Clara, Santa Cruz, Solano, Sonoma
• Greater Sacramento: Alpine, Amador, Butte, Colusa, El Dorado, Nevada, Placer, Plumas, Sacramento, Sierra, Sutter, Yolo, Yuba
• San Joaquin Valley: Calaveras, Fresno, Kern, Kings, Madera, Mariposa, Merced, San Benito, San Joaquin, Stanislaus, Tulare, Tuolumne
• Southern California: Imperial, Inyo, Los Angeles, Mono, Orange, Riverside, San Bernardino, San Diego, San Luis Obispo, Santa Barbara, Ventura

The restrictions prohibit all private gatherings of any size and close everything down except for critical infrastructure and retail.

The counties of the Bay Area went ahead and preemptively imposed the new restrictions.

Now those are slowly being lifted.

In a public health order back in December, the counties said, "Rather than waiting until Intensive Care Unit (ICU) bed availability reaches critical levels and delaying closures that are inevitable, the Health Officers for the Counties of Alameda, Contra Costa, Marin, San Francisco, and Santa Clara as well as the City of Berkeley are jointly announcing that they will implement the State's Regional Stay Home Order now."

(Screenshot from covid19.ca.gov)

Tim Jue is a San Francisco-based reporter covering airlines and travel. He told TPG, "These new stay-at-home orders for California were to be expected, I'm afraid. All the numbers were climbing in the wrong direction. The state is dissuading not just interstate travel, but intrastate trips as well. Governor Newsom is asking people to stay within their own counties as much as possible with these new orders."

JohnnyJet founder and editor-in-chief John E. DiScala told TPG, "For most responsible Californians it's not going to affect us that much because we've been living this way for the last nine months. We see the hospitalization numbers rising and it's scary. People just need to sit tight for a few months until this nightmare is over. The good news is there's light at the end of the tunnel we just need to make it through."

Do note that most of the state of California has an ordered curfew between 10 p.m. and 5 a.m.

Recommended quarantines

California, Oregon and Washington issued new travel advisories Friday, Nov. 13 asking all out-of-state visitors and residents returning home to self-quarantine for 14 days beginning immediately. There is no enforcement mechanism in place for most counties.

Henry Harteveldt, president at Atmosphere Research Group, told TPG back in November, "I would have preferred to see the governors offer travelers the option to quarantine for a few days after returning from their trips and taking an at-home COVID test. Those who test negative would be exempt from further quarantine, those who test positive would need to stay home for the remainder of their 14-day quarantine."

Related: CA, OR and WA order recommended quarantine

Mandatory quarantines

The entire state of California is under a requested two-week quarantine for anyone arriving from out-of-state (including residents), but it is not required and not being enforced. Santa Clara County is one of the exceptions. The county is requiring quarantine for anyone coming from more than 150 miles away. See below for more details.

Jue told TPG, "The state stopped short of handing down a mandatory travel quarantine, but individual California counties are starting to go that route, which they can do."

Related: Are rapid COVID-19 tests the way to get people traveling again?

Santa Clara County

Santa Clara County was the first to implement new requirements including mandating travelers quarantine for two weeks. That was eventually shortened to 10 days. The county includes San Jose and a big chunk of Silicon Valley.

According to the Santa Clara County health department , the order reads, "all persons traveling into Santa Clara County, whether by air, car, train, or any other means, directly or indirectly from a point of origin greater than 150 miles from the County's borders must quarantine for at least 10 days after arrival."

The order from the end of November lasts until "it is rescinded."

It does not include those transiting the county or staying overnight. That means passengers transiting from Norman Mineta San Jose International Airport (SJC) should be able to do so without quarantine.

Related: Do you need a negative coronavirus test to fly?

Hotels and other lodging businesses are being told to advise all guests of the new rules. Passengers arriving at SJC are also apparently getting forms outlining the new policies.

Enforcement, however, is another matter. There is little evidence so far of any means of enforcement. In fact, people arriving in the county are not being traced or asked to fill out any forms.

Hotels in the country told me that they are asking guests to "self-police."

Los Angeles

Los Angeles is now requiring all arriving passengers via train or plane to fill out paperwork acknowledging the "recommended " two-week quarantine . Travelers will be required to sign a form that they are aware of the self-quarantine request. They are also asked for their contact information for future tracing. Failure to do so may result in a fine of up to $500.

There is signage at both Los Angeles International Airport (LAX) and Van Nuys Airport (VNY). The form is now available at travel.lacity.org or by scanning the QR code posted at airports or train stations.

Los Angeles has also imposed a "safer-at-home" order which means residents should not leave for any non-essential business. All non-essential travel is also banned . The Los Angeles Times reports the order prohibits hotels and other lodging companies from offering rooms to people visiting for tourism and leisure, although it's unclear that is being enforced.

San Francisco and other Bay Area counties

San Francisco is beginning to lift its strong stay-at-home order, but it will be baby steps. It is also asking anyone coming from more than 150 miles away to quarantine.

San Francisco International Airport says on its website:

"The California Public Health Travel Advisory instructs persons arriving in California from other states or countries, including returning California residents, to self-quarantine for 10 days after arrival."

San Francisco Mayor London Breed ordered indoor dining, gyms and places of worship to close, but those restrictions could be lifted soon.

Sacramento region

A stay-at-home order was lifted for the Sacramento region on Jan. 12. Outdoor dining is again allowed and restaurants in the capital's downtown area have already reopened their curbside or sidewalk dining.

Bottom line

California is being very serious about combatting the worst surge yet in the battle against coronavirus. The state is finally beginning to ease a full lockdown in most counties including lifting shelter-in-place orders as ICU beds begin to open up again. Santa Clara County and most other Bay Area countries are requiring a ten-day quarantine for travelers.The slow relaxation of strict stay-at-home orders is good news in the battle against COVID-19.

For all things California, take a look at our Golden State hub.

United Quest vs. Delta SkyMiles Platinum Amex: Battle of the mid-tier airline cards

M id-tier credit cards are in the sweet spot between cards with annual fees of $100 or less and those with annual fees of $500 or more.

In the world of airline credit cards, the most head-to-head competitor to the United Quest℠ Card with a $250 annual fee at this mid-tier level is likely the Delta SkyMiles® Platinum American Express Card , which comes with a $350 annual fee (see rates and fees ).

These two cards are issued by different banks and provide miles and perks valid at different airlines, but they also share many similarities.

Let's see how these two cards stack up in a head-to-head competition.

United Quest vs. Delta SkyMiles Platinum comparison

United quest vs. delta skymiles platinum welcome bonus.

The United Quest Card offers a 60,000 bonus United miles and 500 PQP after $4,000 in spending in the first three months. TPG values this bonus at $810.

The Delta SkyMiles Platinum is currently offering 85,000 bonus miles after you spend $4,000 on purchases in the first six months of account opening. TPG values these 85,000 miles at $978.

Winner: Delta Platinum

Related: The ultimate guide to credit card application restrictions

United Quest vs. Delta SkyMiles Platinum benefits

Both cards offer elitelike benefits, such as free checked bags when flying that airline, priority boarding and a 20%-25% rebate on eligible inflight spending. Additionally, both cards offer TSA PreCheck/Global Entry credits, statement credits, and rental car and trip protection coverage.

The United Quest has a $125 annual statement credit against United purchases each year. It also awards two 5,000-mile bonuses — one for each time you redeem miles per cardmember anniversary year, up to 10,000 total miles in a year. Based on TPG valuations, that's a potential $130 value each year.

Other perks include a free first and second checked bag for the cardholder and one other on the reservation, priority boarding and a 25% statement credit toward inflight purchases on United. This card also makes the cardmember eligible for upgrades on award flights if they have United elite status.

The United Quest Card awards 25 PQPs for every $500 you spend in purchases, up to 6,000 PQPs a year. This can be applied toward your Premier status qualification, up to and including the Premier 1K level. To fully max out earning the 6,000 PQPs, you must spend $120,000 on your Quest card.

The Delta Platinum Amex 's marquee ongoing benefit is the anniversary companion ticket awarded each year you renew the card. This ticket is only valid in Main Cabin (economy), and the first ticket must be charged to your Delta card. There are also some fare class restrictions that make the benefit unavailable on certain dates and routes. On the positive side, the benefit can be used even if the cardholder is not on the flight, making it shareable with friends or family.

In addition, the Delta Platinum comes with multiple statement credits, including a $150 Delta Stays credit, a $120 ride-hailing credit ($10 monthly) and a $120 Resy credit ($10 monthly). You must enroll for the ride-hailing credit.

With the Delta Platinum card, you also can earn elite status through spending. This card comes with MQD Headstart, where you receive $2,500 MQDs each Medallion Qualification year. Cardmembers also earn $1 MQD for each $20 you spend.

Lastly, the Delta Platinum comes with a 15% discount on award flights operated by Delta. This card also has cellphone protection, whereas the United Quest does not.

Winner: Tie. Both cards offer similar airline-specific benefits and credits.

Related: United Airlines MileagePlus: Guide to earning and redeeming miles, elite status and more

Earning miles on the United Quest vs. Delta SkyMiles Platinum

The United Quest Card earns 3 miles per dollar spent on United purchases, 2 miles on other travel charges (including other airlines, hotels, car rentals, etc.), 2 miles per dollar on dining and select streaming and 1 mile on other purchases. TPG values United miles at 1.35 cents a point.

The Delta SkyMiles Platinum Amex has a similar 3-2-1 earning structure to the United Quest Card. You'll earn 3 miles per dollar on eligible purchases with Delta and hotels (made directly with the hotels), 2 miles per dollar spent at restaurants and U.S. supermarkets and 1 mile per dollar on other purchases. TPG values Delta miles lower, at 1.15 cents.

Winner: United Quest, as its miles are worth more than Delta's.

Related: How to redeem miles with the United MileagePlus program

Redeeming miles on the United Quest vs. Delta SkyMiles Platinum

Both cards can redeem the miles earned on their respective airlines.

With United Quest card , you can redeem flights for United, partner and Star Alliance flights. With the Delta Platinum, you can redeem your SkyMiles for Delta, partner and SkyTeam flights.

I like to redeem SkyMiles whenever Delta runs award flash sales and use the 15% award discount perk. Recently, I got a one-way ticket from Seattle to Cancun for just 3,400 SkyMiles in economy.

WInner: Tie. Both cards redeem miles with their respective airlines and alliance partners.

Related: Guide to Delta elite status

Should I get the United Quest vs. Delta SkyMiles Platinum

When comparing these mid-tier airline cards, this question can be answered based on the airline you prefer. Both offer similar perks, but if you don't fly with a specific airline often, it may be harder to utilize these perks. If you fly Delta more frequently, you should opt for the Delta Platinum and vice versa if you fly United for often.

Related: Best Delta credit cards

How to switch from the United Quest to the Delta SkyMiles Platinum

It is not possible to switch from one card to another as one is issued by Chase, and Amex issues one. You would have to apply for whichever card you don't have.

Related: How to pick the best United credit card

Bottom line

These mid-tier cards both make compelling cases to join your credit card lineup. If you only want to choose one, the best one for you will likely be the one that aligns with the airline you fly most consistently.

The United Quest card has better built-in travel protections and a significant edge in earning on flights.

However, the Delta SkyMiles Platinum Amex is the heavyweight champion if you travel on paid domestic flights with a companion, need ongoing cellphone protection or want to check bags for more than two people on your reservation.

Even if you fly a couple of times per year with either of these airlines, both are cards worth considering. It's entirely possible that both the United Quest and Delta SkyMiles Platinum cards deserve a spot in your wallet.

To learn more, read our full reviews of the United Quest and Delta SkyMiles Platinum .

Apply here: United Quest Card

Apply here: Delta SkyMiles Platinum American Express Card

For rates and fees of the Delta SkyMiles Platinum Amex card, please click here .

Editorial disclaimer: Opinions expressed here are the author’s alone, not those of any bank, credit card issuer, airline or hotel chain, and have not been reviewed, approved or otherwise endorsed by any of these entities.

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A New Measure Shows C.E.O. Pay at Even More Astronomical Levels

With new executive pay disclosures, the big picture is still riches at the top and lagging wages for most of the rank-and-file, our columnist says.

By Jeff Sommer

Jeff Sommer writes Strategies , a weekly column on markets, finance and the economy.

The annual tallies of chief executive pay for 2023 have arrived and they are fascinating and irritating, in equal measure.

There is already so much evidence that C.E.O.s are earning a ton of money — while most employees are not — that these annual revelations can’t be called shocking news.

But this year, there’s a new wrinkle: Companies must disclose how much C.E.O. stock holdings increase when the market rises. By that measure, too, chief executives are amassing extraordinary wealth.

From any angle, the specifics are eye-popping.

In 2023, using traditional measures of executive pay, four chief executives of publicly traded companies were each rewarded with more than $150 million:

Jon Winkelried of TPG , a private equity company.

Harvey Schwartz of the Carlyle Group , also a private equity firm.

Hock Tan of Broadcom , a semiconductor and data-center giant.

Nikesh Arora of Palo Alto Networks , a global cybersecurity company.

Plus, new rules stemming from the Dodd-Frank law of 2010 have gone into effect. They focus on how the market changes executive pay each year, yielding a second highest-paid C.E.O. list.

These new numbers — called compensation actually paid (CAP) — are often even bigger than the traditional chief executive payday bonanzas. That’s the case for a man whose outsize pay is already a major issue for his company: Elon Musk of Tesla, who gained $1.4 billion in 2023 — more than any other C.E.O.

But that stunning figure is only theoretical and based largely on stock that Mr. Musk no longer has a legal claim to. The holdings reflect an earlier $46.5 billion pay package that a judge in Delaware has voided , and that Mr. Musk is fighting to reclaim. Tesla shareholders are set to vote on Mr. Musk’s pay on June 13, and court battles are likely to continue for a long while.

So now we have two complete data sets using distinct and complementary analytical methods, both demonstrating what we’ve always known: It’s good to be the boss.

But how good, exactly? C.E.O. pay data, gleaned from the filings of all publicly traded companies and assembled at my request by the executive compensation research firm Equilar , provided fresh answers.

Traditional Pay

First, consider the longstanding methods for assessing executive compensation required by Dodd-Frank. Publicly traded U.S. companies must disclose top executives’ salaries, the value of newly granted stock and options and an assortment of miscellaneous perks like personal security guards or corporate jets.

I’ll call this entire approach Traditional Pay, though there’s nothing traditional about it for those of us who take the train or subway to work and will never receive pay packages with nine figures.

Using Traditional Pay, Equilar identified the 100 highest-paid C.E.O.s at public companies in 2023. The median pay for these executives — the midpoint, where half of the compensation packages are lower and half are higher — was more than $29 million.

And thanks to Dodd-Frank, we also know that the median pay of employees at these companies was around $100,000, and the median C.E.O.-to-worker pay ratio was about 300 to one.

Let’s translate that.

It means that for an average employee at one of these companies to earn as much as the C.E.O., she would have to transcend the human life span and toil for 300 years. And consider this: The American worker’s average annual wage in 2023 was only $65,470 , according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. At that wage, it would take 445 years to earn as much as the middle-of-the-road chief executive on this list.

Top of the Heap

What about the C.E.O. at the very top? For 2023, that would be Mr. Winkelried of TPG, whose compensation was $198,685,926. The median pay of TPG employees was high, too: $290,997. Even so, it would take them 683 years to earn what Mr. Winkelried made in one year. And for people with average American paychecks? More than 3,000 years.

Pay ratios on this scale reflect levels of income inequality that were widely viewed as abhorrent 50 years ago. Last year, I pointed out that the American social structure was flatter and C.E.O.-worker pay ratios were lower in the 1970s and 1980s. I noted last week that income inequality was an important cause of Social Security’s financial problems because high earners were increasingly protected from taxation by the income cap for the Social Security payroll tax.

Through the 1970s, one study found, the C.E.O.-worker pay ratio for big companies was less than 20 to one. In the 1980s, Peter F. Drucker, the economist and Wall Street Journal columnist, cited research showing it felt “about right” when C.E.O.s received 10 to 12 times what workers earned. He said pay ratios as high as 20 to one might be all right for workplace morale and social cohesion, though that was stretching it.

But paying the C.E.O. hundreds of times more than workers earned? That was out of the question then, though it is now standard practice for many big publicly traded companies. (Disclosure: Here at The New York Times, the pay ratio is 54 to one, the company says .)

Using Traditional Pay metrics, the second-most highly paid C.E.O. in 2023 was Mr. Schwartz of the Carlyle Group. He earned $186,994,098 — 813 times what the median Carlyle employee received. Right below him on the list was Mr. Tan of Broadcom. He got $161,826,161. The pay ratio at Broadcom was 510 to one.

The highest-ranked woman on the list was Sue Nabi of Coty , the beauty products company. She was in fifth place, with a total compensation of $149,429,486. The median worker at Coty earned $39,643. That combination produced the highest pay ratio in the Traditional Pay list: 3,769 to one, meaning that Coty employees would need to work for more than 3,769 years to earn what she received in just one year.

Here are highlights of this list:

Who Was Granted the Most Last Year

Top 10 U.S. chief executives by compensation granted in 2023. “Pay ratio” is C.E.O. total relative to the median worker’s pay.

A New Approach

Twelve years after the enactment of Dodd-Frank, the Securities and Exchange Commission approved additional rules for assessing C.E.O. pay. Virtually all publicly traded companies have been subject to these “compensation actually paid” rules this year.

The new approach is supposed to help shareholders determine whether an executive’s compensation is aligned with their company’s stock market return. It emphasizes the annual changes in value of an executive’s current and potential stock holdings, in contrast with the traditional approach, which provides a snapshot of the estimated value of a pay package when it is granted.

It’s too early to judge the new calculation. Though it provides new tidbits, it has drawbacks. For one thing, the way it’s computed is complex. In their disclosure statements, companies have quietly complained about it.

After Mr. Musk, the next C.E.O. on what I’ll call the New Accounting list is Alexander Karp, the chief executive of Palantir Technologies, with nearly $1.1 billion. But take that gaudy number with many grains of salt.

A footnote in the Palantir compensation disclosure made me laugh, which was noteworthy because these compensation disclosures usually make me frown.

Referring to Mr. Karp’s apparently gargantuan payday, it said: “The term ‘compensation actually paid’ or ‘CAP’ does not reflect the amount of compensation actually paid, earned or received by him during the applicable year.”

In reality, Palantir said, the numbers reported for Mr. Karp and a handful of other Palantir executives “are driven primarily by changes in our stock price,” which rose more than 100 percent in 2023, producing big gains for shareholders and so, “following S.E.C. disclosure rules, the fiscal year 2023 CAP disclosed below has increased.” But the previous year, 2022, was a miserable one for the whole stock market. Palantir shares fell sharply, as did the value of Mr. Karp’s compensation, using the New Accounting approach. For 2022, the company said, he lost more than $1.7 billion.

These staggering, fluctuating sums would be perplexing in isolation. Still, they serve a purpose, I think. Big changes in this measure are a sign that a C.E.O. received enormous compensation packages involving company stock in the past. For example, The Times reported that for 2020, Mr. Karp received $1.1 billion in Traditional Pay, the most for any chief executive that year.

Similarly, Broadcom reported that in 2023, Mr. Tan’s compensation with the New Accounting was $767,654,487, almost five times his already rich compensation on the Traditional Pay list. That happened because the share price rose and Mr. Tan, the chief executive of his company since 2006, had amassed a great deal of stock, options and the like.

In an interview, Roy Saliba, the managing director at ISS-Corporate, a provider of data and analytics to corporations, said, “The compensation actually paid numbers really get amplified for executives who have been at a firm for a long time and have accumulated holdings for a number of years.”

Here are the leaders in the New Accounting list:

Who Earned the Most Last Year

Top 10 U.S. chief executives by “compensation actually paid” in 2023, an accounting measure that includes changes in the value of current and potential stock holdings.

For investors untroubled by income inequality and its social consequences, it might be fine for C.E.O.s to make expanding fortunes as long as stock prices rise. And prices have risen for the overall market since 2010.

The median pay for chief executives of S&P 500 companies rose 63 percent from 2010 through 2023, based on data provided by ISS-Corporate. At the same time, the S&P 500 returned 462 percent, including dividends, according to FactSet.

If you focus entirely on stock performances like that, the level of C.E.O. pay may seem inconsequential. Say-on-pay votes give shareholders a chance to signal disapproval of pay packages, but 92 percent of the time this year, investors at S&P 500 companies have said “yes” on C.E.O. pay, according to ISS-Corporate data.

Yet I suspect that the stock market would perform well even if C.E.O.s merely earned millions, instead of hundreds of millions, and rank-and-file workers got a bigger slice of the pie. That’s not the way the world has been going, not for many years. But it doesn’t have to be that way.

An earlier version of this article misstated Sue Nabi’s place on the list of U.S. chief executives with the highest compensation granted in 2023. She was in fifth place, not fourth.

How we handle corrections

Jeff Sommer writes Strategies , a weekly column on markets, finance and the economy. More about Jeff Sommer

The World of Elon Musk

The billionaire’s portfolio includes the world’s most valuable automaker, an innovative rocket company and plenty of drama..

SpaceX: The company achieved a key set of ambitious goals  on the fourth test flight of a vehicle that is central to Elon Musk’s vision of sending people to Mars.

Starlink: The satellite-internet service has connected the Marubo people, an isolated tribe in the Amazon, to the outside world — and divided it from within .

Town Halls: X will host live video town halls with Donald Trump and Robert F. Kennedy Jr. in the run-up to the U.S. presidential election, a major push into politics  by the social media platform.

X: Musk has increasingly been using his social media platform to criticize President Biden  for his health and immigration policies, according to a New York Times analysis.

Neuralink: Musk’s first human experiment with a computerized brain device developed significant flaws, but the subject, who is paralyzed, has few regrets .