CEO pay at publicly traded waste and recycling companies climbed again in 2025, according to recent proxy filings.
GFL Environmental CEO Patrick Dovigi was again the top earner among the seven publicly traded waste companies in the cohort Waste Dive analyzed. His pay rose significantly in 2025 compared to the previous year, in part due to a bonus related to GFL’s sale of its environmental business.
The other six CEOs also earned more in 2025 compared to 2024. This mirrors a wider trend in CEO pay across other industries, according to an annual study of S&P 500 chief executives from Equilar and the Associated Press.
The pace of overall CEO compensation increases was more muted in 2025 than in 2024, in part because of “ongoing economic uncertainty,” according to the report. The median total 2025 compensation for these CEOs was $17.7 million, a 5.9% increase from 2024. It’s the smallest annual growth rate since 2022, when the median pay grew by 0.9%.
Equilar reported a 9.7% increase in 2024, which it said was in line with “the typical annual change in CEO compensation” for that time.
A separate Equilar study of the 100 highest-paid CEOs in the country shows a different angle. In 2025, median CEO compensation for these executives was $29.4 million, up 23.2% from the previous year. This is the highest jump since 2021, when the CEOs were generally rewarded for leadership during the COVID-19 pandemic, Equilar said. In 2025, artificial intelligence innovations became a big factor that influenced higher pay.
Waste Dive analyzed data from the largest publicly traded waste companies operating in the U.S. and Canada, listing them by revenue.
This data also includes “compensation actually paid” disclosures as required by the Securities and Exchange Commission. This category is intended to more accurately measure the value of CEO stock awards.
Industry breakdown
Hover over the chart for specific data, organized in order of company revenue.
*GFL reports in Canadian currency, calculation based on June 3 exchange rate
WM CEO Jim Fish
- 2025 company revenue: $25.2 billion
- Base salary: $1,486,538
- Stock awards, option awards, non-equity incentive plan compensation and all other compensation: $17,562,248
- Total 2025 compensation: $19,048,786
- 2025 CAP: $27,485,198
- Median employee compensation: $100,067.27, ratio 190-to-1
Republic Services CEO Jon Vander Ark
- 2025 company revenue: $16.59 billion
- Base salary: $1,302,692
- Stock awards, non-equity incentive plan compensation and all other compensation: $13,554,324
- Total 2025 compensation: $14,857,016
- 2025 CAP: $14,865,606
- Median employee compensation: $79,734, ratio of 186-to-1
Waste Connections CEO Ron Mittelstaedt
- 2025 company revenue: $9.47 billion
- Base salary: $1,171,943
- Share-based awards, non-equity incentive plan compensation and all other compensation: $8,585,622
- Total 2025 compensation: $9,757,565
- 2025 CAP: $10,901,916
- Median employee compensation: $74,945, ratio of 130-to-1
GFL Environmental CEO Patrick Dovigi
(Canadian dollars)
- 2025 company revenue: $6.62 billion
- Base salary: $2,460,010 (1,773,006 U.S. dollars)
- Share-based awards, annual incentive plan and all other compensation: $228,275,733* (164,525,422 U.S. dollars)
- Total 2025 compensation: $230,735,743 (166,298,428 U.S. dollars)
- Median employee compensation: N/A
*Nearly $44.2 million of this was for transaction bonuses related to GFL completing the divestiture of its environmental services business.
Clean Harbors co-CEO Eric Gerstenberg
- 2025 company revenue: $6.03 billion
- Base salary: $1,000,000
- Stock awards, non-equity incentive plan compensation and all other compensation: $4,929,422
- Total 2025 compensation: $5,929,422
- 2025 CAP: $6,059,705
- Median employee compensation: $86,500, ratio of 69-to-1
Clean Harbors co-CEO Mike Battles
- 2025 company revenue: $6.03 billion
- Base salary: $1,000,000
- Stock awards, non-equity incentive plan compensation and all other compensation: $4,927,812
- Total 2025 compensation: $5,927,812
- 2025 CAP: $6,042,760
- Median employee compensation: $86,500, ratio of 69-to-1
Enviri Chairman, President and CEO F. Nicholas Grasberger III
- 2025 company revenue: $2.24 billion
- Base salary: $1,014,269
- Stock awards, option awards, non-equity incentive plan compensation and all other compensation: $4,958,544
- Total 2025 compensation: $5,972,813
- 2025 CAP: Not provided
- Median employee compensation: $56,850, ratio 105-to-1
Former Casella Waste Systems CEO John Casella*
- 2025 company revenue: $1.84 billion
- Base salary: $790,463
- Stock awards, non-equity incentive plan compensation and all other compensation: $3,615,483
- Total 2025 compensation: $4,405,946
- 2025 CAP: $5,410,135
- Median employee compensation: $79,050, ratio 56-to-1
*John Casella stepped down as CEO in January 2026, remaining with the company as executive chairman of the board.
Median employee ratios
Compensation for S&P 500 CEOs in 2025 again rose faster than median employee pay, Equilar noted. S&P 500 CEOs made 200 times more than their median employees in 2025, a jump from the 189-to-1 ratio reported in 2024. In 2023, that ratio was 186-to-1.
In 2025, median employee pay at S&P 500 companies was $89,744. That’s up from $85,691 in 2024, marking a 4.7% increase year over year. That’s compared to the 1.7% pay increase those employees got between 2023 and 2024.
Among waste companies that Waste Dive analyzed, the smallest ratio was 60-to-1 and largest was 201-to-1. Pay gaps widened for about half of the companies on Waste Dive’s list.
Long-term pay trends
Though waste CEOs have steadily made more money over time, their overall compensation has fluctuated based on stock performance, one-time bonuses, or other factors. GFL CEO Patrick Dovigi, for example, earned a significant bonus in 2025 related to the company’s successful divestiture of its environmental services division, which it sold to affiliates of asset management fund Apollo and investment firm BC Partners for about 8 billion Canadian dollars.
The chart below shows industry compensation fluctuations since 2018.
Cole Rosengren contributed to this story.
