Abigail Disney, an heir to the Walt Disney fortune has criticised the company for protecting executive bonuses and dividends of more than $1.5bn (£1.2bn) while cutting the pay of more than 100,000 workers to help weather the financial impact of coronavirus.
She said the $1.5bn in typical dividend pay-outs would keep staff paid for months.
“That’d pay for three months’ salary to frontline workers,” she said. “And it’s going to people who have already been collecting egregious bonuses for years. Dividends aren’t all bad, given the number of fixed-income folks who rely on them. But still 80% of shares are owned by the wealthiest 10%. Pay the people who make the magic happen with respect and dignity they have more than earned from you. This company must do better.”
She said the $1.5bn in typical dividend pay-outs would keep staff paid for months.
“That’d pay for three months’ salary to frontline workers,” she said. “And it’s going to people who have already been collecting egregious bonuses for years. Dividends aren’t all bad, given the number of fixed-income folks who rely on them. But still 80% of shares are owned by the wealthiest 10%. Pay the people who make the magic happen with respect and dignity they have more than earned from you. This company must do better.”
Disney executives claimed to have made salary sacrifices to “better enable the company to weather the extraordinary business challenges”. Iger gave up the remainder of his $3m salary for this year, while Bob Chapek, who recently replaced Iger as chief executive, will forgo half his $2.5m base salary.
But Abigail Disney explained, “Salary is a drop in the bucket to these guys. The real payday is in the rest of the package.” The company has protected those lucrative incentive schemes.
Iger earned a total of $65.6m in 2018 and $47m last year. His latest package is more than 900 times that of the median Disney worker’s earnings. Chapek could potentially receive an annual bonus “of not less than 300%” of salary, in addition to a long-term incentive award of “not less than $15m”.
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