EA CEO Andrew Wilson took a pay cut last year at the behest of shareholders, and we finally know how much: a whopping $20 million. But, as with most executive pay scenarios, the complexity of Wilson’s pay isn’t quite as straightforward.
The previous year, 2021, Wilson earned $39.2 million from a $1.25 million base salary and a range of stock awards, benefits, and other forms of additional compensation typically available to directors. top executives. But the EA board of directors has come under pressure to reform those numbers. A 2020 “payroll” vote by shareholders showed that only 26% of the company’s shareholders were satisfied with the current pay mechanisms, after similar votes in previous years. showed overwhelming support for executive pay.
The wave of dissatisfaction is at least partly instigated by CtW Investment Group, an organization that for many years has asked several companies to perform the task of paying executives well, including EA and Activision Blizzard. The organization accused EA of “developing an addiction to special prize sponsorship,” noting that Wilson’s compensation was based on how large the prize money was. And indeed the following year, a $30 million stock endowment was given to Wilson in 2021 to help “retain and motivate” him.
Although the ‘payroll’ votes of the shareholders are non-binding, they are indeed dominated by the shareholders, and disappointing a large number of them inevitably leads to consequences. So in 2022, EA chose to forgo some of Wilson’s usual big bonuses. While his base salary technically increased from $1.25 million to $1.3 million, without certain bonuses, he made a total of $19.9 million. dollars in fiscal year 2022, down nearly $20 million from 2021, according to EA’s records.
We still don’t know what Wilson will do in the current financial year, for the EA starting in April of this year. The company will hold another vote in August this year, which will allow shareholders to express their satisfaction, or not, with how it reformed its pay structure. And it reiterated its pledge not to grant any particularly fair rewards to executive officials until 2026, although there are still other ways for top peers to receive substantial salaries. For example, he received stock grants worth $30 million in 2021 and $18 million this year, both of which make up the bulk of his salary each year and could bounce back. in the coming years.
A report earlier this year game operator compensation comparison in 2020, at which time Playtika CEO Robert Antokol was the highest earning CEO with $372 million. Activision-Blizzard CEO Bobby Kotick brought in $154.6 million that year, and Wilson made $34.7 million. For comparison, that same year, EA’s average employee compensation was $123,935. According to the 2021 report, that average fell last year to $115,569.
Rebekah Valentine is an IGN news reporter. You can find her on Twitter @duckvalentine.
