Big Paydays for Media’s Big Chiefs: CEO Compensation Stays High Even in Hard Times

Economists are fretting about a recession. Media stocks are in the toilet. Layoffs are being enacted monthly as a spirit of cut, cut, cut grips Hollywood and Silicon Valley. Oh, and screenwriters are on strike, while directors and actors are threatening to join them when their contracts expire next month.

But for the media moguls and tech entrepreneurs who run the major conglomerates, it’s business as usual in one important respect. Yes, most of these corporate chieftains trimmed their pay packages … but not all of them did. Netflix’s Reed Hastings and Ted Sarandos got double-digit bumps even as their company suffered a historic selloff. Apple’s Tim Cook’s total compensation neared $100 million, while Alphabet’s Sundar Pichai’s topped $225 million. Even those executives who took pay cuts raked in millions in bonuses, salaries and perks that left them firmly ensconced in the 1% of the 1%. The most eye-popping pay packages are usually inflated by present-day value of stock options that can’t be immediately cashed in but can still provide the wrong kind of incentive to keep stock prices high.

“Compensation for these CEOs never goes down in bad times as much as it goes up in good times,” says Rosanna Landis Weaver of shareholder advocacy group As You Sow. “When things are going well, boards always say, ‘Oh, my God, they’re all geniuses,’ and when things go bad it’s always blamed on external factors and not the person in charge.”

What kind of steady leadership did investors get in return for these mega paydays? Well, Disney kicked out Bob Chapek after three years, cushioning his blow with a $20 million golden parachute. NBCUniversal’s Jeff Shell was fired for cause after failing to disclose an affair with an employee. And Rupert and Lachlan Murdoch oversaw a news organization so eager to provide a platform for those peddling 2020 presidential election lies that it just paid a $787 million libel settlement with Dominion Voting Systems, while a $2.7 billion lawsuit from Smartmatic looms.

Some of these companies, including Fox and NBCUniversal parent Comcast, are tightly controlled, meaning their compensation committees don’t have to fear angry shareholders. And those that don’t have dual-class ownership, where a select few shareholders wield inordinate influence, still determine pay in comparison to the Comcasts and Foxes of the world.

“Other than bonuses, much of a CEO’s compensation isn’t tied to a company’s performance,” says Charles Elson of the University of Delaware’s John L. Weinberg Center for Corporate Governance. “It’s determined relative to what every other CEO is being paid. That creates a scenario where it’s heads, I win; tails, I win.”

Disney

Image Credit: Courtesy of Disney Bob Chapek, Former CEO 2022

Chapek compensation: $24.2M/ -25.5%

Bob Iger, CEO 2022

Iger compensation: $15M/ -67.3%

Median employee compensation: $54,256

Chapek pay ratio to median employee: 446

So long, Mr. Chapek! It was a rocky time atop the Magic Kingdom for the Disney chief, who was booted from his post in November just months after the company’s board renewed his contract. During Chapek’s tenure Wall Street soured on Disney’s spending on its streaming service, to say nothing of a near employee revolt over his stumbling response to Florida’s “Don’t Say Gay” law. But don’t weep for Chapek. In addition to the $24.2 million he earned in his final year, he got a $20 million severance package. Bob Iger, who retired in 2021 and then unretired less than a year later to clean up things, earned a prorated bonus and another $4.4 million award to bring his pay package to $15 million. A disastrous succession that was still lucrative for those at the top. Disney rank and file weren’t as lucky. The company is eliminating 7,000 jobs as it looks to cut costs.

Netflix

Image Credit: Courtesy of Netflix Reed Hastings, Co-CEO 2022

Hastings compensation: $51.1M/ +25.2%

Ted Sarandos, Co-CEO 2022

Sarandos compensation: $50.3M/ +31.5%

Median employee compensation: $218,400

Hastings/Sarandos pay ratio to median employee: 234/230

Netflix shares plunged more than 50% in 2022 as investors grew concerned over ballooning costs and sputtering subscriber growth. Yet the two men at the top saw their compensation packages increase. To stem the bleeding, Netflix announced it would introduce a lower-priced ad-tier subscription model. It also announced that Hastings would step down, with COO Greg Peters joining Sarandos as co-CEO. It was a lucrative send-off: Hastings’ total pay last year was $51.07 million, $49.4 million of it in options. Sarandos’ pay included a $20 million base annual salary, $28.5 million in stock options and $1.79 million in other compensation (including $1.43 million in residential security costs). The board credited Hastings for “continuing to develop and evolve the business strategy” and praising Sarandos for “his global stature as a leading media executive.”

Comcast

Image Credit: Getty Images Brian Roberts, CEO 2022

Roberts compensation: $32.1M/-5.9%

Jeff Shell, NBCU CEO 2022

Shell compensation: $10.2M (Forfeited stock grants and options, or total would have been $21M)

Median employee compensation: $83,399

Roberts pay ratio to median employee: 385

Comcast’s 2022 executive pay was complicated. While CEO Roberts’ compensation was down almost 6% ($32.1 million versus $34 million), ousted NBCUniversal CEO Jeff Shell’s compensation has a big asterisk to explain its nearly 53% drop from 2021. Shell exited in April after admitting to an “inappropriate relationship” with a subordinate. Since he was fired for cause, he was entitled to his base salary of $2.5 million, $7.5 million in non-equity incentive plan pay and $215,000 in “all other” compensation, but he forfeited his stock and options, which totaled $10.8 million. If he hadn’t been terminated, he would have brought in $21 million, holding steady with his 2021 pay. Comcast has yet to see a profit from its NBCU-run streamer Peacock, but announced on a Q4 earnings call the platform should hit peak loss in 2023 at $3 billion and turn the tide from there.

Apple

Image Credit: Getty Images for AFI Tim Cook, CEO 2022

Cook compensation: $99.4M/ +0.7%

Median employee compensation: $84,493

Cook pay ratio to median employee: 1,177

Shouldn’t Apple — the most valuable company on Earth as of March 2023, with a market cap of around $2.6 trillion — be entitled to lavish riches on its top executive? Cook received nearly $100 million in compensation for fiscal year 2022, roughly what he earned the year before. But the board had a change of heart after shareholder pushback. Last year, Institutional Shareholder Services recommended that investors vote against Cook’s compensation, citing “significant concerns regarding the design and magnitude of the equity award.” At the 2022 annual meeting, shareholders approved Apple’s 2021 executive compensation plans, but with 64% votes in favor, down from 95% the year prior. In the wake of that vote, the board’s compensation committee cut his target total pay package to $49 million for 2023. Still a hefty chunk of change, but likely more palatable to Apple investors.

Warner Bros. Discovery

Image Credit: Getty Images David Zaslav, CEO 2022

Zaslav compensation: $39.3M/-84.1%

Median employee compensation: $172,735

Zaslav pay ratio to median employee: 227

A year into ownership of the former WarnerMedia, and Zaslav and the Discovery crew have enacted layoffs while canceling finished movies to take write-downs. Investors worry that the combined company remains overleveraged with more than $50 billion in debt. When Warner Bros. Discovery launched in April 2022, shares traded at $25. Now they are roughly $13. Yet Zaslav is one of the highest-paid executives in media with $39.3 million in salary and bonuses, though his compensation package fell dramatically from the $246.6 million he logged in 2021. In awarding Zaslav nearly his full bonus, the board praised him for taking “actions to focus the entire enterprise on cost-cutting measures.” To that end, last spring WBD created a bonus pool for Zaslav and other senior staffers that will be paid out if they meet certain goals toward generating free cash flow.

Paramount

Image Credit: Courtesy Image Bob Bakish, President and CEO 2022

Bakish compensation: $32M/+60%

Median employee compensation: $110,221

Bakish pay ratio to median employee: 291

Paramount Global was all about belt tightening in 2023 — just not when it came to its head honcho’s paycheck. Despite all the Sturm und Drang surrounding a possible recession and a tumbling ad market, CEO Bakish made $32 million in 2022, which marked a substantial 60% increase from his $20 million payday in 2021. That year’s figure was down 48.7% from 2020. Bakish’s 2022 jump came as Paramount posted a -44% total shareholder return. And what Bakish oversaw was a media empire in constriction mode. The company announced in January it would be folding Showtime into its streamer Paramount+. That was followed by a slew of cancellations at Showtime and restructuring moves and layoffs across Paramount as a whole. Notably, Paramount is the only mega media company in this grouping with a majority female board, with Shari Redstone serving as chairwoman.

Fox

Image Credit: Getty Images Rupert Murdoch, Chair 2022

Rupert Murdoch compensation: $18.4M/-40.8%

Lachlan Murdoch, CEO and executive chair 2022

Lachlan Murdoch compensation: $21.7M/-21.7%

Median employee compensation: $91,803

Lachlan Murdoch pay ratio to median employee: 237

The Murdochs took pay cuts in Fox’s fiscal 2022 for the third year in a row, but not so much it hurts. Chair Rupert Murdoch had a base salary of $5 million compared with his son Lachlan Murdoch’s $3 million as CEO. The younger Murdoch had stock, options and other incentives of more than $18.8 million, while the elder had nearly $13.5 million in comparable compensation. Fox got a boost from political ad sales tied to the midterm elections, so it suffered a smaller decrease in total shareholder return compared with its media brethren. But it wasn’t all good news. Dominion Voting Systems’ defamation lawsuit against Fox — which was finally settled in April — uncovered a series of embarrassing revelations about the company’s top talent and inner workings. Fox paid out $787.5 million to Dominion, amounting to nearly 6% of Fox’s total 2022 revenue.

Amazon

Image Credit: Courtesy Image Andy Jassy, CEO 2022

Jassy compensation: $1.3M/-99%

Median employee compensation: $34,195

Jassay pay ratio to median employee: 38

At first blush, it looks like Jassy’s pay took a massive hit last year: His comp package totaled $1.3 million, down from $212.7 million in 2021. But nearly all of his 2021 pay (99.6%) was in stock awards, which are “intended to represent most of Mr. Jassy’s compensation for the coming years,” the company said in its proxy statement. Furthermore, Amazon noted, Jassy’s actual compensation in 2022 as defined by the SEC was negative $148 million, and his realized compensation declined by 25% as Amazon’s stock price plunged. Jassy, in his second annual letter to shareholders, called 2022 “one of the harder macroeconomic years in recent memory,” and he’s undertaken major cost-cutting moves. Bezos, now executive chairman, had the same comp package last year — $1.68 million, including $1.6 million in security expenses — that he received the previous two.

Meta

Image Credit: dpa/picture alliance via Getty I Mark Zuckerberg, CEO 2022

Zuckerberg compensation: $27.1M/+1%

Median employee compensation: $296,320

Zuckerberg pay ratio to median employee: 91

Zuckerberg saw a modest increase in overall compensation, which aside from his $1 annual salary comprises security and aircraft payments made by Meta for him and his family. COO Sheryl Sandberg, who left last fall (but remains on the board), earned $33.4 million in 2022, down 5%, while chief product officer Chris Cox saw his pay decline 22% to $22.6 million. Meta suffered a 64% decline in the stock market, shedding some $620 billion in market value. Its net income dropped 41% in 2022, although that was still $23.2 billion. Yet Meta paid cash bonuses to each of its named executives (except Zuckerberg). Cox, for example, received a $940,214 bonus in 2022, which “reflected his continued strong leadership of the product organization, increased engagement on our family of apps, and the positive trajectory of our Reels product,” the company said in its proxy statement.

Alphabet

Image Credit: AFP via Getty Images Sundar Pichai, CEO 2022

Pichai compensation: $226M/ +3,474%

Median employee compensation: $279,802

Pichai pay ratio to median employee: 808

Sundar Pichai’s pay package last year increased nearly 36fold, thanks to stock awards totaling $218 million (under the company’s program to grant the CEO such stock awards every three years). The Alphabet board’s compensation committee last December “granted a new equity award to Sundar to recognize his strong performance as our CEO,” per the proxy statement. The disclosure of Pichai’s huge payday came after he announced plans to cut 12,000 jobs in January (6% of the tech giant’s workforce); the company — like others in the tech sector — had ramped up hiring during the pandemic. The executive’s 2022 compensation also included $5.9 million for personal security