Here's your Forbes Daily Briefing for Friday, May 23rd.

Today on Forbes, Hired Hand Billionaires 2025,

these 48 executives got rich working for others.

Most billionaires got rich by building businesses or inheriting big bucks from someone who did.

Yet a small but growing group of

current and former American executives have managed to amass three comma fortunes as very well-paid

employees. Altogether, Forbes found a record 48 of these hired-hand billionaires in 2025,

up from 29 a year ago.

And that count is sure to keep climbing, thanks to soaring share prices and sky-high

executive pay packages.

The average annual compensation of the 10 highest-paid CEOs in America shot up more than

sevenfold from $46 million per year in 2010 to a peak of $330 million

per year in 2021, according to data firm Equilar. Most Americans build their wealth through a salary

or hourly wage, but top execs are often paid in stock options and other share awards that

vest over several years and are

often tied to performance. And that's increasingly the case, with the average equity component

of CEO pay packages growing from 54% in 2012 to 66% in 2023. This, according to executive

compensation consulting firm, Semler-Brasi.

That's helped the best-paid CEOs in the U.S. keep getting richer, even as the average pay of the

top 10 chief executives has actually fallen post-COVID, to a still enviable $125 million per year

in 2023, the most recent year for which full data is

available.

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