A new study blames Tesla (TSLA) CEO Elon Musk's exorbitant $1 trillion pay package for opening the door to a new era of excessive compensation among leaders of other S&P 500 companies.

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The American Federation of Labor and Congress of Industrial Organizations (AFL/CIO) says that the average compensation for chief executives of the S&P 500 companies has risen 21% to $22.8 million, a situation that has been exacerbated since Musk secured an incentive-laden compensation deal at Tesla worth as much as $1 trillion if he hits multiple targets in coming years.

The pay package of Elon Musk "changes the dynamic when other CEO compensation plans come up, boards use it as a reference," said Fred Redmond, the AFL-CIO's secretary-treasurer, in an interview with the Reuters (TRI) news agency. Musk's net worth surpassed $1 trillion earlier this year following the initial public offering (IPO) of his other company SpaceX (SPCX).

Swelling Pay Packages for CEOs

The AFL/CIO notes that Wall Street investment bank Goldman Sachs (GS) paid CEO David Solomon $118.9 million last year, including a retention award. And real estate investment trust Welltower (WELL) paid CEO Shankh Mitra $821 million, meant to include most of his pay over the coming decade.

However, only 19% of shareholders cast votes in support of the pay package for the Welltower CEO. The AFL/CIO notes that the mean annual wage for all U.S. workers is at $69,770, a fraction of the pay earned by most CEOs who are leading S&P 500-listed companies.