Disney Stock UP! Bob Iger Compensation DOWN?
Critique of the CEO’s paycheck was prevalent in 2019…
I am aware of the controversy(?) over Bob Iger’s compensation. I am also aware of, say, how much athletes are paid.
And given the way that corporations benefit from the work of brilliant chief executives and left-handed pitchers, I don’t spend too much time on how much high performers get compensated. Frankly: I should be so lucky.
And, just imagine how much — oh IDK — WALT DISNEY would make in 2020?
BUT, a whole lot of people pay attention to paychecks, so here we go.
The Walt Disney Company makes a lot of money. And so does the CEO, Bob Iger. But this year, even as Disney stock prices rise, Bob Iger’s compensation is descending.
Some Things Ascend, Others Descend
Forbes’ Dawn Chmielewski posted:
Walt Disney Co. Chairman and CEO Bob Iger’s compensation fell 28% to $47.5 million in 2019 one year after shareholders had signaled their unhappiness with his pay, one of the highest among U.S. public company executives.
In a securities filing late Friday, Disney recounted how the board had lowered Iger’s compensation twice since shareholders issued a rare rebuke in 2018 of his pay package and an advisory firm called it “excessive.”
Criticism of his paycheck, including from Disney heir Abigail Disney, became a talking point in a broader national conversation around pay equity.
What I’d Like To See
Now, given how little the “little people” at large corporations make, what I’d like to see as a coda to this story is some notion of how Iger’s compensation (achieved through the free market system, btw, they didn’t have to promise him that much), had been redistributed throughout — just spitballing here — maybe the security departments at Disney Parks as a reward/additional incentive to keep Walt’s houses safe in the scary times in which we live.
However, you’ll notice no such notice was given. SO, I sit here saying, If Iger played a central role in Disney achieving the lofty heights of its present position, why in the name of Adam Smith did they lower his pay?
Here’s hoping there’s a direct corollary to the Disney Aspire project, or something, coming soon…