Bob Iger.Photo: Steven Ferdman/Patrick McMullan/Getty
Disney heiress Abigail Disney has a bone to pick with Disney CEO Bog Iger’s $65.6 million compensation.
Disney, the granddaughter of Disney co-founder Roy Disney, called the whopping figured “insane,” and suggested instead that the millions be better dispersed among hourly employees at the Fast Company Impact Council Thursday.
The Emmy-winning documentary filmmaker, 59, noted that it was nothing personal against Iger, but that any company paying high-ranking executives that much money “has a corrosive effect on society.”
Abigail Disney.Jemal Countess/Getty
“I like Bob Iger. Let me be very clear: I think he’s a good man. But I think he’s allowing himself to go down a road that is the road everyone is going down,” she said, according toFast Company.
Iger’s total compensation hit $65.6 million in 2018,an increase of 80% from the prior year. In the filing for his raise, Disney’s compensation committee highlighted the company’s $71.3-billion acquisition of 21st Century Fox assets and the development of new subscription streaming video services, including the upcoming Disney+,according to theLos Angeles Times.
Disney said she crunched the numbers after speaking with Disneyland employees in California who have seen their benefits reduced over the years and are now struggling to pay for things like medical expenses.
“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,” she said. “So that’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.”
She continued with a lengthy thread explaining why she believed executives’ pay should be better distributed among employees.
“I’m not saying Iger doesn’t deserve a bonus. He most certainly does. He is brilliant and has led the company brilliantly,” shewrote. “There are just over 200K employees at Disney. If you took half that 65M bonuses, along with half the very generous bonuses everyone else up in the C suites got, I am quite certain you could move significant resources down the line t more evenly share in the great success.”
Sheadded, “What difference would it make in the quality of life for those that gave up half their bonus? None. Zero. Maybe they can’t afford a third home. Or another boat. I’m not being facetious here. That’s the kind of sacrifice we’d be talking about for high level execs.”
In a statement toCNBC, a spokesperson for The Walt Disney Company said the company has recently implemented a starting hourly wage of $15 per hour at Disneyland, which is double the federal minimum wage, and committed up to $150 million for an education initiative to help hourly employees get a free college or vocational degree.
“Mr. Iger’s compensation is 90 percent performance-based and he has delivered exceptional value for shareholders: Disney’s market capitalization has grown exponentially over the last decade, rising $75 billion in the last month alone, and the stock price has increased to $132 a share from $24 a share when Mr. Iger became CEO in 2005—all of which directly benefits literally thousands of employees who hold our stock,” the statement read.
Abigail Disney, meanwhile, toldThe Cutlast month that she has given away more than $70 million since her 21st birthday.
“I’m proud of that. I’m in a position to continue giving a lot of money away until the day I die,” she said. “I could be a billionaire if I wanted to be a billionaire, and I’m not because I don’t want to be a billionaire. That’s an insane amount of money.”
Disney is also a member ofPatriotic Millionaires, an organization that advocates for higher taxes on the wealthy.
source: people.com
