Top Disney Executives Take a Pay Cut as Bob Iger Forgoes His Entire Salary
Courtesy of movieweb.com:
The Walt Disney Company has announced that their top executives will be taking pay cuts, while executive chairman Bob Iger will forgo his salary entirely. Iger just stepped down as CEO and earned $47.5 million in the last fiscal year, which is down from the $65.6 million he made in 2018. The pay cut decisions were announced after it was revealed that Disneyland and Disney World will remain closed indefinitely. With that being said, it looks like they have a plan to get everything moving again since they are taking reservations for June 1st.
Disney’s new CEO Bob Chapek will be taking a 50% pay cut during this time. Chapek’s base salary as the new CEO is $2.5 million, though he has an annual target bonus of a reported $7.5 million. Chapek sent out an email this morning to employees about the cuts declaring, “effective April 5, all VPs will have their salaries reduced by 20 percent, SVPs by 25 percent and EVPs and above by 30 percent.” You can read a portion of the email below.
“As we navigate through these uncharted waters, we’re asking much of you and, as always, you are rising to the challenge and we appreciate your support. Your dedication and resilience during this difficult time are truly inspiring and it gives me renewed confidence that will we come through this crisis even stronger than before, we have so many tome in our company’s history.”
The Walt Disney Company told shareholders that there were going to be some rough waters ahead in mid-March. In addition to the theme park closures, Disney has seen disruption in movie projects, sporting events, and TV shows. It is believed that the company will lose around $500 million from keeping the theme parks closed through the end of March, which is a substantial chunk of change.
For now, it looks like Disneyland and Disney World will remain closed until June, which means another solid two months of no business and no profits. Plus, we’re seeing big movies like Mulan and Black Widow get delays. It’s unclear when movie theaters will reopen and so Disney has not yet announced when they will be putting out these projects.
Disney is far from the only studio taking a big hit at the moment. Everybody is feeling it and a lot of top executives are forgoing their salaries to keep things going a little longer. For now, it seems that the best everyone can do is stay indoors in hopes that everything will go smooth. It will benefit healthcare professionals and ensure that local businesses and big businesses open their doors a lot sooner, as opposed to later or not at all. New York Times reporter Brooks Barnes’ Twitter account was the first to reveal the Disney news.
Early this morning, Disney joined other companies in making deep cuts in salaries for executives. Iger will forego all of his salary. From the company-wide email: pic.twitter.com/8WGjkqYFxy
— Brooks Barnes (@brooksbarnesNYT) March 30, 2020
