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- Hacker News
- If you ranked the top 500 US professional athletes by salary and looked at the median (#250, so as here, you’re only looking at the “S&P 250”), I’d be surprised if the result were radically different.
USA Today[1] helpfully has a ranked list of 2025 MLB salaries, and at #100 is Kyle Freeland of the Colorado Rockies, making $16M. Add in the NFL, NBA, NHL, MLS and finding another 150 athletes paid that or more should not be hard.
Top 500 Hollywood actors, directors, writers, producers, … same thing.
Not to mention the top 500 engineers in Silicon Valley.
It’s good to have your talents in demand.
[1] https://databases.usatoday.com/major-league-baseball-salarie...
by twoodfin - I think in all of your examples those people actually perform to obtain their money.
In the example, CEO's might not perform at all: "The report noted that stock awards now make up the largest share of executive pay, allowing leaders to cash in on soaring valuations that may outpace a company's underlying performance."
And I think the average company in the S&P employs more people than, say, the Colorado Rockies (but I could be wrong, that's a guess).
But maybe the relative poverty of Americans who struggle can be attributed to overpaid actors, directors, and athletes too, to extend your argument?
by newsomix9xl