A recent analysis in the Wall Street Journal shows that in 2021, the top S&P 500 executives will achieve record salaries for the sixth consecutive year. The median amount taken home by maximum revenue was $ 14.7 million.
Most of the shares are made up of shares and stock options, this executive pay packet shows who benefited from the recovery in sales and profits and stock market increases following the first year of the Covid-19 pandemic.
Peter Kern of Expedia was the overall winner
With the highest earnings of them all, Expedia CEO Peter Kern is an exemplary case of how the stock market pandemic rewarded the company’s top managers.
The company’s vice president, former media boss and venture capitalist Kern raised $ 42 million in 2021, mainly in shares.
Expedia shares on Feb. 21, 2020 are trading at $ 120 each; they collapsed over the next two months when Covid-19 took over the world. Kern was appointed sole CEO of the company during the entire lockdown. The shares fell to $ 61 each and then, like the rest of the market, began to recover as the months passed.
Expedia’s board approved Kern’s CEO compensation package in February 2021, with a share price of $ 157. The stock continued to rise that year, closing at $ 180. They are currently at $ 120-125.
Specifically, the 54-year-old Kern’s compensation consists of $ 850,000 in cash salary, $ 830,000 in other compensation (including $ 90,000 for personal use of the company’s aircraft) and two large stock and option packages. : $ 157 million in shares and another 137 million in options.
Most payments are deferred and payments will not begin until 2024.
The company said Kern’s excessive salary was justified by the promise he showed in “a time of great uncertainty for the company and the travel industry” in the early years of the pandemic; also mentioned his leadership in establishing a platform operating model, a cost savings program to mitigate travel interruptions and his usually careful balance management.
David Zaslav of Discovery at number two
The second highest paid executive in 2021 is David Zaslav, 62, president and CEO of Discovery, the communications and entertainment group that co -founded WarnerMedia.
Following the merger, the company signed Zaslav to a generous six -and -a -half -year contract with a fixed salary of $ 3 million a year, a $ 22 million benchmark bonus and an additional $ 12 million in stock incentives.
In addition, he received a stock welcome/retention bonus worth $ 203 million; a multi-year package whose final quantification depends on the evolution of shares on the stock exchange.
Zaslav’s final bill for 2021 (which also includes $ 774,000 for personal use of the company’s plane, escorts and security and car expenses at his disposal) reached $ 246 million.
More winners at ServiceNow, Apple, JP Morgan
ServiceNow, the $ 85 billion cloud computing giant, also offered the irresistible package to William McDermott, which it signed from SAP. In just two years, McDermott, 60, raised $ 231 million. If this welcome salary of $ 41 million in 2019 isn’t bad, it’s actually complemented by another 25 million in 2020; McDermott’s package broke records last year with his total compensation worth $ 165.8 million. Again, most of those amounts consist of company shares and stock options.
Apple boss Tim Cook, 61, received a huge incentive on the stock in 2011 when he took over the company. Having missed out on top salary positions for several years, even within his company, in 2021 he was paid. Cook earned $ 98.7 million, of which three million was his salary, $ 12 million cash incentive and $ 82 million in shares. There were more than a million that included, among other things, $ 712,000 for personal use of the company plane. Since 2017, Apple has used Cook a private plane for all personal and business trips for efficiency and safety.
To be sure, Apple has a long list of executives on multi-million dollar salaries. Finance director, Luca Maestri; legal counsel, Kate Adams; chief of staff and retail business Deirdre O’Brien and chief operating officer Jeff Williams each earned $ 27 million in 2021, according to public information filed by the company.
The fifth position according to public company information is held by 66-year-old Jamie Dimon, chief executive of JP Morgan. His compensation in 2021 is $ 84.4 million. A package of $ 52.6 million in stock options made a difference from last year.
Dimon’s number two, Argentinian Daniel Pinto, 57, has also become one of the highest paid managers with a $ 53 million package, thanks to a special stock option plan for him and Dimon. In fact, Pinto’s salary exceeds that of most CEOs of other companies.
The list of S&P 500 highest -earning CEOs was completed by Jay A. Snowden, of Penn National Gaming, at $ 65.9 million; Hock Tan, of Broadcom, with $ 60.7 million; Ronald Clarke of Fleetcor, with $ 57.92 million, and Glenn Fogel, of Booking Holdings, with $ 54 million. Thomas Rutledge, CEO of Charter Communications, enters number 10 with $ 41.9 million.
