New SEC disclosures are putting a sharp spotlight on how differently two of Metro Detroit’s biggest mortgage players pay their people. Rocket Companies’ filings peg the median total compensation for a Rocket employee at roughly $112,820 for 2025, while United Wholesale Mortgage’s proxy lists a median of about $43,349 for 2024. On paper, that leaves one local mortgage workforce sitting at a six-figure middle and the other at a little over a third of that, all inside the same regional industry.
As reported by the Detroit Free Press, the figures come straight from each company’s latest SEC filings and are drawing attention because of just how far apart those medians land.
What Rocket’s Proxy Discloses
Rocket’s 2026 proxy identifies its median employee as someone working in “Rocket Experience at Rocket Mortgage, LLC,” with 2025 annual total compensation of $112,820 and a CEO-to-median pay ratio of about 469:1. The filing also notes that the 2025 median came in roughly 13% higher than the prior year. The document lays out the full methodology and calculations behind those numbers in detail on StreetInsider.com.
What UWM Reported
UWM’s 2025 proxy shows its median employee’s annual total compensation for 2024 at $43,349. It lists CEO Mat Ishbia’s total compensation at roughly $13.15 million, which produces a CEO-to-median pay ratio of about 303:1. The filing explains that UWM identified its median worker using annual base salary and related calculations, and spells out the specific approach in UWM’s proxy.
Why the Medians Diverge
The gap starts to look less shocking when you drill into methodology and who is being counted. Rocket states that it used W-2 wages as its consistently applied compensation measure and excluded thousands of workers acquired in 2025 when it identified its 2025 median. UWM’s disclosure, by contrast, is based on its annual base-salary calculation for 2024. Those kinds of choices can move the median a lot.
The SEC has long said that companies may use different reasonable methods to identify a median employee, which helps explain how two big regional lenders can post very different medians while operating in the same broader market. Rocket’s proxy and the SEC spell out those rules and options.
What It Means Locally
On the ground in Metro Detroit, the contrast is hard to miss. One publicly traded mortgage platform is reporting a six-figure median paycheck, while another is reporting a median that is roughly one-third as large. That split is likely to raise fresh questions about recruiting, the balance of salaried versus commission or hourly positions, and the role that stock awards and bonuses play in boosting headline medians, as local coverage has noted. The Detroit Free Press has been tracking that local context.
Underneath the headlines, the SEC filings are the core documents, and they show how much median pay figures can shift based simply on which compensation elements and employee groups are included. Investors, workers, and local leaders are likely to watch upcoming proxies and annual meetings closely to see how each company describes compensation trends and the makeup of its workforce.
