Disney Scion Criticizes CEO Iger's 'Insane' Pay

Walt Disney Co. DIS CEO Bob Iger’s new $65.6-million compensation package is “insane,” said the granddaughter of the company’s co-founder Roy Disney.

Abigail Disney, a filmmaker and activist, made the charge during a panel discussion on “humane capitalism” at the Fast Company Impact Council, held by the magazine Fast Company.

Executive pay in the range of what Iger makes has “had a corrosive effect on society," Disney said. 

Iger recently saw his pay increase by 80 percent, after earning $36.3 million in 2017.

'Too Much Money' 

Consulting firm Equilar, which publishes the Equilar 100 list of the highest CEO pay at the largest companies, said Iger is the third-highest paid CEO at the top companies by revenue. Iger’s pay comes in only behind that of Oracle Corporation ORCL co-CEOs Mark Hurd and Safra Catz, each of whom has a total compensation package worth $108.2 million, according to Equilar.

Catz, incidentally, is also a board member at Disney.

Let me very clear. I like Bob Iger. I do NOT speak for my family but only for myself. Other than owning shares (not that many) I have no more say in what happens there than anyone else. But by any objective measure a pay ratio over a thousand is insane. https://t.co/O34OjXd6rr

— Abigail Disney (@abigaildisney) April 21, 2019

Disney said in a tweet that she doesn't speak for the Disney family and that her only role at the company is as a shareholder. She said her holdings amount to "not that many" shares, but reiterated her belief that Iger's ratio of pay of more than 1,000 times that of the median at Disney is "insane."

Iger's pay is 1,424 times the Disney median salary, according to Equilar.

“When he got his bonus last year, I did the math, and I figured out that he could have given personally, out of pocket, a 15-percent raise to everyone who worked at Disneyland and still walked away with $10 million," Disney said, according to Fast Company. 

"So there’s a point at which there’s just too much going around the top of the system into this class of people who — I’m sorry this is radical — have too much money."

Disney Responds 

In a statement to Benzinga, a Disney spokesman said the company has made "historic investments" in the upward mobility of its workers, including a starting hourly wage of $15 at Disneyland. 

That is double the federal minimum and above the $12-an-hour minimum in California. The company also said it's spending up to $150 million on education benefits for workers. 

The spokesman also pointed out that Iger's compensation is 90-percent performance-based, and the CEO has led the company as it has increased market capitalization exponentially and grown its share price from $24 when he took over in 2005 to more than $130 now.

In its 2018 fiscal year, Disney saw revenue rise 8 percent to $59.4 billion. 

Iger's salary was $2.875 million in fiscal 2018, according to company disclosures. His compensation included tens of millions more in stock awards and options.

Price Action

Disney shares were down 0.8 percent at $131.39 at the time of publication Monday. 

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Photo by Coolcaesar/Wikimedia.