Netflix promises ‘more traditional model’ for CEO pay – Deadline

Mega Agency

Netflix said it is working on changes to its CEO pay policies after a majority of shareholders refused to approve compensation for top executives in a non-binding vote at the recent annual meeting. The company said this earlier this year.

“We recognize that we have not had the broad support of our executive compensation model over the past 20 years. We are listening to our shareholders and plan to make substantive changes for 2024 toward a more traditional model. Our executive compensation plan will continue to build,” the company noted in its annual letter to shareholders. On pay for performance.

Netflix has been constantly tangling with shareholders over executive pay.

For 2022, last year’s Netflix co-CEOs — then Reed Hastings and Ted Sarandos — topped the CEO pay list, at about $50 million each, up 25% and 32%, respectively. Hastings moved into the CEO role early this year with Sarandos and Greg Peters now as co-CEOs. Netflix famously allowed executives to choose how they wanted to be paid, in cash or stock. Sarandos tended to take cash, earning a base salary of $20 million. (Hastings took almost all of his pay last year in stock options as he usually does.)

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The company then said, with the encouragement of shareholders, that it was reconsidering its pay policies. It said that starting in 2023, it would cap co-CEO base salary at $3 million and require 50% of allocable pay to be in stock options — though the vesting period is only one year, so it’s not particularly long-term. .

Another unusual thing the company did was predict how much its top executives would earn in any given year before the start of the year. In December, the Netflix board’s compensation committee said it expects 2023 salaries to be in line with 2022. It said Hastings will receive $650,000 in base salary and stock options worth $34 million. Sarandos will receive a $3 million salary, options worth another $20 million and a target bonus of $17 million.

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