As You Sow, an organization dedicated to promoting corporate accountability, has published its annual list of top 100 “Most Overpaid CEOs,” which includes Activision Blizzard’s Bobby Kotick and Electronic Arts’ Andrew Wilson.
As You Sow has been publishing this report since 2015, taking a number of factors into consideration when populating the list. As part of its methodology, the organization looks at excess CEO pay in relation to total shareholder return, shareholders’ votes against CEO compensation packages, median employee pay, and more. You can find a detailed write up on the methodology on As You Sow’s website but to cut to the chase, Kotick appears at no. 45 and Wilson appears at no. 98.
Looking at the figures closely, Kotick is paid $28,698,375 – an excess of $12,835,277 by As You Sow’s calculations. The ratio of Kotick’s pay to median worker pay at Activision Blizzard is 306:1. Interestingly, Kotick’s compensation package received 92 percent approval votes.
Wilson earns $35,728,764 per annum – an excess of $19,673,861 per As You Sow’s calculations. The CEO to worker pay ratio at EA is 371:1, with Wilson’s pay receiving 97 percent approval votes.
The report reveals that an increasing amount of shareholders are now opposing extortionate compensation packages but CEO pays continue to increase overall.
“Opposition to high CEO pay has risen, and more companies have seen their CEO pay packages receive less and less support from their shareholders,” As You Sow noted. “European funds and U.S. public pension funds have made their opposition to a broken system clear.”
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[Source: As You Sow via Gamasutra]
