The average startup CEO salary in 2023 is $142,000, down from $150,000 in 2022 and $146,000 in 2021 and back to the same level as 2019. The decline is attributed to increasingly restricted capital markets and the resulting requirement to extend cash runways.

Importantly, the pay gap between male and female startup CEOs is closing, but remains wide after the dramatic spread that took place during the pandemic. In 2019, there was a $5,000 difference between male and female CEOs that increased to a $45,000 difference during the pandemic in 2020. In 2021 that spread lessened to a $16,000 difference and a $20,000 difference in 2022. This year, the spread has improved modestly, to a $14,000 difference between male and female startup CEOs. Male CEOs earned an average of $145,000 this year, while their female counterparts earned an average of $131,000. READ MORE