Pope Leo XIV is raising concerns about the growing gap between the rich and everyday workers—and he is focusing on Elon Musk’s potential path to becoming a trillionaire. In his first formal interview as pope, Pope Leo says extremely high executive salaries could put the world in “big trouble.” This comes after a report showed that many billionaire signers of The Giving Pledge by Warren Buffett and Bill and Melinda French Gates have fallen behind on their promises to give away their wealth.
If Pope Leo XIV were on Tesla’s board, Elon Musk’s proposed trillion-dollar paycheck would never happen.
The 70-year-old pope criticized the growing income gap between workers and the wealthy, calling Musk an extreme example of executive pay.
“CEOs that 60 years ago might have been making four to six times more than what the workers are receiving, the last figure I saw, it’s 600 times more than what average workers are receiving,” he told Catholic news site Crux in an interview released Sunday.
“Yesterday, the news that Elon Musk is going to be the first trillionaire in the world: What does that mean and what’s that about? If that is the only thing that has value anymore, then we’re in big trouble.”
Pope Leo’s comments come as Tesla’s board proposed a $1 trillion pay package for Musk, which depends on him growing the company eight times over the next decade. Just this morning, Musk bought $1 billion worth of Tesla stock, signaling he plans to stay with the company, according to CNN.
Although Pope Leo earns over $400,000 a year—similar to U.S. presidents or university leaders—his concern reflects wider worry about high executive pay. Among the 100 S&P 500 companies with the lowest worker pay, CEOs made an average of $17.2 million in 2024, compared to a median worker salary of $35,570, according to the Institute for Policy Studies. That’s a ratio of 632 to 1.
Billionaires’ wealth grows fast—but giving lags behind
While ordinary workers struggle with inflation, stagnant wages, and fewer job opportunities, the wealth of billionaires keeps growing. Billionaire wealth rose three times faster in 2024 than in 2023, according to Oxfam. In the past ten years, the top 1% gained nearly $34 trillion—enough to end annual poverty 22 times over at the highest poverty line.
Last week, Larry Ellison set a record for the biggest one-day increase in net worth on Bloomberg’s Billionaire Index, gaining $89 billion thanks to Oracle’s fast growth.
At the same time, many billionaires are behind on their promises to give away money through The Giving Pledge, started in 2010 by Warren Buffett and Bill and Melinda French Gates. The pledge asks billionaires to donate at least half their wealth during their lifetime or in their wills.
Of the 256 signers, only nine have fully met the pledge. Most donations go to private foundations rather than directly to causes. Out of $206 billion donated by the original 2010 signers, about $164 billion went into private foundations, according to the Institute for Policy Studies.
While The Giving Pledge told Fortune that the IPS report “paints a misleading picture of the impact and intent of Giving Pledge signatories,” the organization admitted there are still important questions to “encourage greater giving.”
