Efficient compensation system can help to fully mobilize the enthusiasm of personnel as well as improve companies’ performance. Because of the big compensation gap between executives and employees, the government issues a series of policy to limit the gap and this leads to a broad discussion. The paper brings, based on the data of listed state-owned manufacture companies from 2009 to 2013, to explore impacts of the compensation gap between top managers and ordinary employees on enterprise’ growth. At the same time, this article studies the role of financial risk plays in the gap and performance. The result shows that the relationship between compensation gap and performance is not lineal, but likes an inverse U curve. Besides, this research also finds that financial risk can significantly weaken the aforementioned relation. Therefore, managers should control them in a reasonable scope, which can avoid the adverse effect and achieve the sustainable growth.