Here's The List Of Top Overpaid Executives In 2019

As You Sow, a non-profit foundation focusing on corporate accountability, has published its annual study on overpaid CEOs in 2019.

Oracle Tops Most Overpaid CEOs

As You Sow has been carrying out studies like these since 2015. They provide details, such as executives' pay compared to the median employee pay.

Oracle Corporation ORCL is among the companies showing the widest gulf between executive and workforce salaries.

The 2020 iteration of the As You Sow study states that Oracle paid $216.5 million to Mark Hurd and Safra Catz, making them the executives with the widest pay gaps. The average worker at Oracle had a salary of $89,887.

Hurd passed away in October 2019.

Disproportionate Executive Salaries Among Major Companies

Walt Disney Co’s DIS CEO Robert Iger, who unexpectedly stepped down from the company Feb 25, was paid 65.6 million, while the average Disney employee made $46,127. Abigail Disney, the granddaughter of the company’s co-founder Roy Disney, criticized Iger’s salary last year as “insane.”

Netflix Inc. NFLX CEO Wilmot Reed Hastings’ salary of $36,080,417 is more than the salary paid to other CEOs in the same line of business. It is certainly far more than the average pay of a worker at the company, which is $202,335.

David Zaslav of Discovery Communications Inc. DISCA makes $129.5 million. Since he became president and CEO of the company 12 years ago, he has been on the list of highest-paid executives, and his sky-high earnings have drawn controversy. Meanwhile, the average salary of a worker at Discovery is $85,704.

Who’s Who Of Overpaid CEOs

Overpaid executives, as ranked by As You Sow.

Mark Hurd & Safra A. Catz, Oracle Corp. Salary $216,577,536 (Median Employee Pay $89,887)

Joseph Hogan, Align Technology Inc. ALGN Salary $41,758,338 (Median Employee Pay $13,180)

Robert Iger, Walt Disney Corp. Salary $65,645,214 (Median Employee Pay $46,127)

David Zaslav, Discovery Salary $129,499,005 (Median Employee Pay $85,704)

Jeffrey Storey, Century Link Inc. CTL Salary $35,655,646 (Median Employee Pay $68,674)

A Pattern of Disproportionately Paid Men Emerges

The As You Sow study noted that most CEOs on its list were disproportionately overpaid. They each had compensation more than $20 million higher than if their salary had been aligned with their performance. 

The study noted that of the 25 most overpaid CEOs there were many habitual offenders such as Walt Disney, which made the list for the third year, American International Group Inc. AIG, Ameriprise Financial Inc. AMP, Centene Corp CNC, Jefferies Financial Group Inc. JEF and Netflix which appeared for the second year in a row. All of the top 25 overpaid executives were male.

Photo Credit: Public domain photo via Wikimedia.