Walt Disney CEO Bob Iger Paid $46.5 Million in 2014

[techtony]

So let's look at Iger, not the board. The board is there for guidance and oversight - but Iger is where the buck stops.

Since Iger took over Disney, the company has seen growth and a resurgence of the brand. To me that is a success. Now we all know that Iger has already decided to leave - as any CEO should - leave on a high note. The next CEO has likely already been selected and is laying in wait.

People somehow believe that you must be in the CEO club to be a great CEO. Basically, the pool of CEOs go from company to company because they think only prior CEOs are qualified and yes, there are lots of "i'll scratch your back if you scratch mine" going on in this club. The truth is, each company already has a valuable asset amongst their ranks. It used to be common for people to climb the corporate ladder and eventually prove themselves worthy as the CEO. In today's world though, companies almost always look outside of their ranks or someone on the Board is elected - but they are almost always members of the CEO club.

When the current pool of recycles CEO's dies out or retires, we may see the old system come back.

Igers salary was the point of this post - and personally I do not like the excessive compensation of CEOs, I think it is ridiculous. Should we cap their salaries? No - we can't and shouldn't.

 

[maleficent32]

Why do people care so much about a private corp pays its CEO. Jealousy that is why, you are jealous that you don't make that much and never will so you pretend its evil.

 

[lockedoutlogic]

Why do people care so much about a private corp pays its CEO. Jealousy that is why, you are jealous that you don't make that much and never will so you pretend its evil.

It's indicative of a larger/societal problem... That's why.

You can reject that...it's an opinion...
But many of the richest men and women on the planet agree.

Could lead to much bigger problems

 

[techtony]

People never cared about CEO compensation until the 80's - when corporations went into massive mergers, downsizing and the start of outsourcing. Then people started to see that some of these companies in trouble were paying their CEO's massive amounts of dollars, yet the companies that they ran were in trouble.

Again I say - should we cap their salary? nope. Can we cap their salary - nope.

I am not jealous at all. I am a capitalist to the core. I just see it as excessive.

I suggest that if someone has not read Ayn Rand - then they go get her books Fountainhead and Atlas Shrugged. These books outline exactly why corporatations going into excess are a bad thing. Now before you cry socialist - read the book and learn about the author as well. She was very much so against socialism and communism, Her family escaped Russia to avoid communism and a possible socialist take over by the germans. She saw first hand the dangers of both. If you haven't read her books yet, I suggest you do, they are good eye opening reads.

Again, not jealous - just concerned.

 

[lockedoutlogic]

So let's look at Iger, not the board. The board is there for guidance and oversight - but Iger is where the buck stops.

Since Iger took over Disney, the company has seen growth and a resurgence of the brand. To me that is a success. Now we all know that Iger has already decided to leave - as any CEO should - leave on a high note. The next CEO has likely already been selected and is laying in wait.

People somehow believe that you must be in the CEO club to be a great CEO. Basically, the pool of CEOs go from company to company because they think only prior CEOs are qualified and yes, there are lots of "i'll scratch your back if you scratch mine" going on in this club. The truth is, each company already has a valuable asset amongst their ranks. It used to be common for people to climb the corporate ladder and eventually prove themselves worthy as the CEO. In today's world though, companies almost always look outside of their ranks or someone on the Board is elected - but they are almost always members of the CEO club.

When the current pool of recycles CEO's dies out or retires, we may see the old system come back.

Igers salary was the point of this post - and personally I do not like the excessive compensation of CEOs, I think it is ridiculous. Should we cap their salaries? No - we can't and shouldn't.

I think we actually agree...

Except for that last "Econ 1" line.
That's the myth of the "free market" In the us. I would argue that "private" companies have increasingly used government/ regulatory action (or inaction) to fix the playing field and lead directly to undeserved profits.

Kinda like "business socialism" with it not really benefiting Anyone but a few...

But I would need a overhead machine and a later pointer to go through that..

 

[lockedoutlogic]

People never cared about CEO compensation until the 80's - when corporations went into massive mergers, downsizing and the start of outsourcing. Then people started to see that some of these companies in trouble were paying their CEO's massive amounts of dollars, yet the companies that they ran were in trouble.

Again I say - should we cap their salary? nope. Can we cap their salary - nope.

I am not jealous at all. I am a capitalist to the core. I just see it as excessive.

I suggest that if someone has not read Ayn Rand - then they go get her books Fountainhead and Atlas Shrugged. These books outline exactly why corporatations going into excess are a bad thing. Now before you cry socialist - read the book and learn about the author as well. She was very much so against socialism and communism, Her family escaped Russia to avoid communism and a possible socialist take over by the germans. She saw first hand the dangers of both. If you haven't read her books yet, I suggest you do, they are good eye opening reads.

Again, not jealous - just concerned.

Oh dear...
You want me to read something that has been proven 100% incorrect?

We'll have to disagree there..

How about a book on Pinochet or polish currency in the 90's while I'm at it?

Anybody want to go see a soccer game?

 

[techtony]

How can a fictional novel be 100% incorrect - it's fiction. I don't think that there is a man actually named John Galt out there. It is the philosophy of the books that should be taken into account - and heeded.

Speaking of - Her book warns against the very thing you bring up about corporations influencing the government to help their bottom line. This is actually 100% the philosophy behind her books. Be aware of corporations that influence the government. A government that does not work for the people, but only caters to corporations is dangerous and they are not serving the people.

Coincidentally, Disney is actually guilty of this. They run their own planning board. They are not required to follow the same rules that other theme parks have to abide by in order to build something. They appoint their own government representatives. They sidestep laws governing city formation and council appointments so that they insure that the people that live in their vicinity cannot fight them. They promise land to people that they want to represent them, and if they leave the position, then the land is taken back by agreement. They are not subject to contractual arbitration agreements like other corporations. How do they get away with this? Just like you warned - they influenced the government and became their own government - with the governments absolute approval - all bought and paid for with corporate money...... Just as Ayn Rand said it would.

 

[lockedoutlogic]

You know very well that rand (kinda weird cult leader...in truth) - whatever her full philosophical or idealistic intentions...

...Has been attached to a kind of disastrous laisse faire that - with disciples notably in the university of Chicago and the treasury from 1980-present - has subjected the public to massive redistribution of wealth (completely upwardly - as all data indicated to a certainty) and government shielded monopoly-esque powers being transferred to a few select corporatists...

Whatever she meant to do...it's been hijacked and used to justify failed policy...by the metrics.
At least in relation to economics...though I won't fault her in that she was not an economist...more of a social theorist.
She's almost "greed's scapegoat" in many ways.

 

[techtony]

It is true that the author had a following in the end years of her life, but she was in no way connected to treasury policy or intertwined somehow with politics. She actually became very reclusive in the 80's - right up to her death.

I know some people villanize her, but honestly those people usually have not read her books or short stories, instead they focus on Wikipedia articles and socialist agendists.

BTW - I guess you could say that Aristotle was a cult leader too, since he had followers - the same way Obama has his.

 

[LeeAndRobin]

For all those that complain "Iger" (or your favorite whipping boy CEO of any large organization/company) gets paid too much, and "the CMs (or employees) should get a raise" from that money, consider this:

Disney employs about 149,000 people world-wide. Iger made $46.5 million last year.

Let's assume that a full-time CM (or the equivalent) works four 40 hour weeks per month. That equals 1920 hours/year.

Now we multiply 1920 x 149,000 to get the number of hours worked by Disney employees over the last year, 286080000.

Now divide Iger's salary by that number of hours to get how much of a raise each employee/CM would have gotten per hour had he made ZERO dollars last year:

A whopping 16.25 cents/hour or about $312/year.

Even if I'm off by a factor of two, it's not a very giant raise. If Iger took any kind of salary at all, the amount of the raise goes down.

I will never make anywhere near Iger's salary (currently I'm <51k./year), yet there are people who think I am way overpaid given what I do. Many of them make many times what I do. They have no idea what my job involves, but yet they feel qualified to judge my compensation.

Much the same is happening here. I seriously doubt anyone in this thread has run a company the size of Disney. You (and I) have no real idea what is actually involved. So I submit we are unqualified to judge whether Iger's compensation is reasonable or not.

 

[lockedoutlogic]

It is true that the author had a following in the end years of her life, but she was in no way connected to treasury policy or intertwined somehow with politics. She actually became very reclusive in the 80's - right up to her death.

I know some people villanize her, but honestly those people usually have not read her books or short stories, instead they focus on Wikipedia articles and socialist agendists.

BTW - I guess you could say that Aristotle was a cult leader too, since he had followers - the same way Obama has his.

I suppose that's true...

However there had never been any speculation/books/articles written in the 1970s context about the other 2 you mentioned...
But there have been about the subject matter.

It's what has been done with it...masking alot of bad ideas and claiming theory...that is probably the problem...

Which happens with many people...not just her.

 

[Yellowstonetim]

For all those that complain "Iger" (or your favorite whipping boy CEO of any large organization/company) gets paid too much, and "the CMs (or employees) should get a raise" from that money, consider this:

Disney employs about 149,000 people world-wide. Iger made $46.5 million last year.

Let's assume that a full-time CM (or the equivalent) works four 40 hour weeks per month. That equals 1920 hours/year.

Now we multiply 1920 x 149,000 to get the number of hours worked by Disney employees over the last year, 286080000.

Now divide Iger's salary by that number of hours to get how much of a raise each employee/CM would have gotten per hour had he made ZERO dollars last year:

A whopping 16.25 cents/hour or about $312/year.

Even if I'm off by a factor of two, it's not a very giant raise. If Iger took any kind of salary at all, the amount of the raise goes down.

I will never make anywhere near Iger's salary (currently I'm <51k./year), yet there are people who think I am way overpaid given what I do. Many of them make many times what I do. They have no idea what my job involves, but yet they feel qualified to judge my compensation.

Much the same is happening here. I seriously doubt anyone in this thread has run a company the size of Disney. You (and I) have no real idea what is actually involved. So I submit we are unqualified to judge whether Iger's compensation is reasonable or not.

People don't understand how business works. Boards and stockholders pay these men huge sums of money because they are worth it in their eyes. If it wasn't, they wouldn't. Iger sure seems to have earned every penny in results.

It is like people that talk about how sports stars are over paid. They are not. The teams pay them large sums because the teams can, and the players are the top people in their games that will help the teams make all that money to pay those huge salaries. In short, they are worth it or they wouldn't spend it. Business.

Ask the owners of Disney - the stockholders - if they think Iger is worth the money. They will tell you he has earned it.

But other people can't get their head around receiving pay like that so they say it should never be. It is a lack of understanding and/or a form of jealously.

High pay isn't new. There have been owners and business leaders that have been paid exorbitant amounts as long as business has been around.

Go Iger! Excellent Job! You have ensured Disney will be around for a long time for me to enjoy. Thanks. And I'll take a little stock, too!

 

[lockedoutlogic]

Ask the owners of Disney - the stockholders - if they think Iger is worth the money. They will tell you he has earned it.
!

I agree with everything you said...
Except this...

...why?

 

[rteetz]

Two interesting quotes I found on another board

"Sometimes you just have to be there with your people. You have to be in the same room with them, look them in the eyes, hear their voices" -Michael Eisner

"We have no idea who they are. We don't know what they are willing to spend, what they like and what they don't like"- Bob Iger

While both quotes come from different interviews on slightly different topics I think it's interesting looking at them together.

 

[Aurora0427]

So tired of listening to people complain about what these CEOs make. As a family member of the former Chairman, CEO, and President of a very large company, I can tell you that he worked his butt off to get there. He started at the very bottom back in the 1960s, and spent decades working his way up. He also paid his way through college and does not come from a wealthy family. He worked Saturdays, traveled a ton, and once he made a lot of money, he gave a lot of it away, and continues to do so now. He supports countless charities and scholarship funds with big donations and time. He also improved working conditions, bonuses, salaries, and benefits for hundreds of thousands of employees world wide. Not to mention the stress and intricate nature of the job. He's earned EVERY penny through hard work and sacrifice.

Are some of these guys jerks and overpaid? Maybe. But most of them have studied and worked incredibly hard to accomplish so much. And most of them give back to their communities in ways you can't even begin to imagine.

Just a viewpoint from someone who actually knows one of these guys personally.

 

[GAN]

People don't understand how business works. Boards and stockholders pay these men huge sums of money because they are worth it in their eyes. If it wasn't, they wouldn't. Iger sure seems to have earned every penny in results.

It is like people that talk about how sports stars are over paid. They are not. The teams pay them large sums because the teams can, and the players are the top people in their games that will help the teams make all that money to pay those huge salaries. In short, they are worth it or they wouldn't spend it. Business.

Ask the owners of Disney - the stockholders - if they think Iger is worth the money. They will tell you he has earned it.

But other people can't get their head around receiving pay like that so they say it should never be. It is a lack of understanding and/or a form of jealously.

High pay isn't new. There have been owners and business leaders that have been paid exorbitant amounts as long as business has been around.

Go Iger! Excellent Job! You have ensured Disney will be around for a long time for me to enjoy. Thanks. And I'll take a little stock, too!

In a general sense, high executive pay as compared to mid-level employee pay actually hasn't been around for "as long as business has been around" -depending on your age, it's a relatively new phenomenon. It's more out of whack now than it's ever been. So who cuts the deals to hire the best CEO's? Well, the board of directors ...most of whom are also CEO's.

I'm a stockholder. I'm making a good amount of money thanks to Bob. If you're running a business as large as Disney you deserve a good pay, and as long as EVERYONE in your organization is enjoying the success ...have at it, make as much as you can. But, too often we hear stories of layoffs, benefit cuts, etc. To the people who may need it most -yet the CEO accepts a massive bonus. Probably not the case here, but it is a huge problem in our society.

In any event, 46M in any form .... Can we fix the damn YETI?!

 

[carmelhp]

I think we actually agree...

Except for that last "Econ 1" line.
That's the myth of the "free market" In the us. I would argue that "private" companies have increasingly used government/ regulatory action (or inaction) to fix the playing field and lead directly to undeserved profits.

Kinda like "business socialism" with it not really benefiting Anyone but a few...

But I would need a overhead machine and a later pointer to go through that..

I think the term is "crony capitalism," cronyism, not the creation of value, is very often what gets one rewarded. Not necessarily at Disney, but overall, there is a large disconnect between performance and compensation. These are publicly traded companies, not "private" companies. If widows and orphans pension funds were not being invested in these companies by fund managers who are part of the same crony machine then I would not care at all.

 

[LeeAndRobin]

But, too often we hear stories of layoffs, benefit cuts, etc. To the people who may need it most -yet the CEO accepts a massive bonus. Probably not the case here, but it is a huge problem in our society.

See my post above. Do the math. Divide that bonus by the number of employees. It's pennies. Not enough in general for us "peons" to even notice in our check.

 

[Goofy4WDW1964]

See my post above. Do the math. Divide that bonus by the number of employees. It's pennies. Not enough in general for us "peons" to even notice in our check.

So that makes it OK? See my prior post. I don't care if shareholders are fine with it. I understand why they are. I am not fine with it as a customer. Since it is my money and not the shareholders money that pays his high salary, I have chosen not to pay into his high salary any more. Since my enjoyment of Disney has fallen, he isn't doing a good enough job to earn that high salary, in my opinion. Since it is my money that I spend at WDW, my opinion is the only one that matters to me. Not the shareholder and certainly not the Board.

 

[lockedoutlogic]

See my post above. Do the math. Divide that bonus by the number of employees. It's pennies. Not enough in general for us "peons" to even notice in our check.

False equivalency..

It's not a matter of bob Iger dividing his check up like a child's piggy bank.

It would be a matter of growing/maintaining the workforce compensation as part of a business model over time.

Obviously there is no magic wand. But a better compensated staff would evolve into a more efficient/productive staff...and you would need less Employees to run the operation on scale...

But...in the case of wdw... They have allowed inflation to take their pay down to minimum over 30 years and expanded hiring to compensate for quality - drone theory. No screening of applicants ( basically ) has gone on for years and they recycle those that had been dismissed prior - something that wouldn't have been tolerated in 1985.

It's also why they will begin outsourcing large parts of the operation as we move forward. It's the only other viable plan in a limited labor market when you don't want to pay for quality.