The gap between the salaries of managers and employees is widening in the United States.
The cause is the hitherto unstoppable growth in executive pay.
In the year after the outbreak of the pandemic, the first executives of the companies in the S&P 500, the most representative index in the US market, achieved record pay.
The median stood at 14.7 million dollars, just over 14 million euros at current exchange rates, according to an analysis by MyLogIQ and published by
The Wall Street Journal.
It is the sixth consecutive annual record.
The recovery in sales and profits and the rise in the stock market after the year of the pandemic benefited the executives, many of whom receive most of their salary in shares, stock options and other instruments linked to the company's listing .
In bull markets, rewards skyrocket.
The highest paid manager was Peter Kern, with 296 million dollars.
His case illustrates quite well those dynamics that reward the manager.
He was already vice president of the company.
In 2021 he had a compensation of 4.2 million dollars, mainly in shares.
On February 21, 2020, Expedia shares were trading at $120 per share.
With the outbreak of the pandemic, they plummeted in the following two months.
In full lockdown, Kern, from venture capital and the media, was appointed sole CEO of the company.
The shares had fallen to $61 and began to recover in the following months, like the entire market.
The company's board approved the new CEO's compensation package in February 2021, when the share price was $157.
Much of it was in stocks, which continued to rise to close 2021 at $180.
This year they are falling and have returned to the area of 120-125 dollars.
In other words, the shareholders are the same as they were a couple of months before the appointment, but the executive has become the highest paid in the United States for a year.
The company justifies its salary for the commitment in "a period of great uncertainty for the company and the travel industry in light of the pandemic", for its leadership in establishing a platform operating model, for its cost savings program to deal with the travel stoppage and for its prudent management of the balance sheet.
But it also points to the recovery of the stock from the lows of the pandemic, according to the report on remuneration included in the company's meeting call, registered with the United States Securities and Exchange Commission (the SEC, for its acronym in English).
The 54-year-old Kern's compensation consisted of $850,000 in cash salary, $830,000 in other compensation (including $90,000 for personal use of the company plane) and two large stock and option packages: $157 million. in shares and another 137 million in options, although most of that compensation is deferred and will not be able to start paying it until 2024, always according to said report.
Discovery CEO David Zaslav at an event in Beverly Hills, California, in 2019. Danny Moloshok (REUTERS)
The second highest paid executive of 2021 was David Zaslav, 62, president and CEO of Discovery, the communication and entertainment group that has integrated 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.
But, in addition, he received a huge welcome package for his new contract as a way to retain him after the merger: stock options valued at 203 million dollars that will expire progressively at different exercise prices, according to the documentation registered by the company.
A multi-year package whose final quantification will depend on the evolution of the share on the Stock Exchange.
His final bill for 2021 (which also includes $774,000 for personal use of the company plane, escorts and security expenses and car at his disposal) amounted to $246 million and made him the second highest paid American executive in the year. .
Bill McDermott, when he was CEO of SAP.Bloomberg
ServiceNow, the cloud computing giant valued at $85 billion, also offered an irresistible package to William McDermott, whom it signed from SAP.
In just over two years, McDermott, 60, has earned $231 million.
If the welcome of 41 million in 2019 was not bad at all and was complemented by another 25 million in 2020, last year it broke records with a total compensation valued at 165.8 million dollars, according to information provided by the company to the supervisor .
Again, most of those amounts are shares and stock options of the company, which has had a sweet time on the stock market in recent years, although things have turned ugly in 2022.
The high salaries of Apple and JP Morgan
Apple boss Tim Cook, 61, received a huge stock incentive in 2011 for taking over the company.
However, he had been away from the top paid positions for a few years, even within his company.
In 2021 he has recovered.
He earned 98.7 million dollars, of which three million were salary, 12 million cash incentive and 82 million, prizes in shares, according to the call of the board of the Californian company founded by Steve Jobs.
There's just over a million that includes, among other things, $712,000 for personal use of the company plane.
Since 2017, Apple's advice has required Cook to always travel by private plane for all personal and business trips for reasons of efficiency and safety, according to the company.
Tim Cook, in an act last week at Gallaudet University in Washington, the first to specialize in students who are deaf or hard of hearing. JIM LO SCALZO (EFE)
Apple has a long list of executives with multi-million dollar salaries.
The financial director, Luca Maestri;
the legal responsible, 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 company filings.
A figure that is in line with what they earn each year.
The fifth position in the remuneration of the past year among the large listed companies in the United States that have published their figures is occupied by a classic of these lists: Jamie Dimon, chief executive of JP Morgan, 66 years old.
His compensation was $84.4 million, according to the compensation report included in his shareholder meeting documentation.
A package of 52.6 million dollars in stock options made the difference from the previous year.
Jamie Dimon, CEO of JPMorgan Chase, in a file image, in his New York office. Lucas Jackson (REUTERS)
His number two, the Argentine Daniel Pinto, 57, also became one of the highest paid managers with 53 million dollars, thanks to the special stock option plan for Dimon and him.
In fact, his salary exceeds that of the vast majority of CEOs of other companies.
The list of CEOs of the S&P 500 with compensation of more than 50 million dollars in 2021 is completed by Jay A. Snowden, of Penn National Gaming, with 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.
No. 10 on the list of highest-paid CEOs, Thomas Rutledge, already drops to $41.9 million.
Interestingly, Warren Buffett and Elon Musk, CEOs of Berkshire Hathaway and Tesla, respectively, rank last in terms of salary.
They have in common to be immensely rich and maximum shareholders of their respective companies.
Buffett received a compensation of 100,000 dollars, plus another 273,000 dollars in security expenses paid by the company.
Tesla, for its part, has not yet recorded the information for this year.
Musk has two unpaid exercises in practice, but with a charge to 2018 he received shares worth 2,284 million dollars.
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