Disney Executives Still Made a LOT of Money in 2020 — Even With Salary Cuts

2020 was definitely a rough year for many people.

With much of the world shut down, many people lost their jobs and their incomes. The Walt Disney Company felt this loss as well, with theme parks closed and media production partially halted. In the midst of the pandemic, top Disney executives took pay cuts to help the financial situation. It sounds pretty straightforward, but what ACTUALLY happened with those cuts? Did they hurt they make a difference?

Back in April of 2020, Disney CEO Bob Chapek and former CEO (current Chairman) Bob Iger both elected to take temporary pay cuts due to the pandemic. Disney shared that Iger would be forgoing his entire salary for the unspecified amount of time, and Chapek would be giving up 50% of his. Talking about giving up an ENTIRE salary sounds pretty daunting, but what does that really mean?

The salary cuts ended in August of 2020, a month after the Walt Disney World parks reopened. Back in January, we got the full reports on what the executives made last year, and the numbers were still pretty staggering. Combined, Iger and Chapek made $35 million in 2020. If they took a 4-month salary cut, then why were these numbers still so high? Let’s break it down.

Starting with Iger, he moved into his Executive Chairman position at the beginning of the year when Chapek was named CEO. In 2019, he made a total of $47.5 million. However, when you look deeper into those numbers, his actual salary is only about $3 million. The other $44 million? Stock awards, stock options, and bonuses.

Thanks to the cuts in 2020, Iger’s base salary went from $3 million to $1.6 million for the year, according to Variety. He didn’t receive any large bonuses like he did in 2019, so his total compensation for the year added up to $21 million. The rest of that package included stock awards, option awards, and other compensations.

If you look at it overall, Iger took a 56% pay cut. However, only a small portion of his loss was due to the sacrifice of his base salary. Most of the decrease was because no bonuses were given out in 2020, and another smaller decrease was due to the drop in stock awards.

Now, let’s deep dive into Chapek’s numbers. Bob Chapek took on the role of CEO in February 2020, so he doesn’t have any past salary to compare to. If you look at the contract he signed upon becoming CEO, then he would’ve made around $15 million for the year, according to Variety. His actual total for 2020 was around $14.2 million.

Chapek’s losses were not near as great as Iger’s, considering Chapek climbed up the ladder into a new role and took a 50% pay cut instead of the 100%. Chapek didn’t get the chance to make more than the $15 million since Disney didn’t hand out any bonuses due to the financial crisis. This fact is what really made the difference for Iger, as $21.8 million of his salary was from bonuses in 2019.

So, did these salary cuts help out the company in the long term? That’s really for Disney to decide, but we do know that they lost BILLIONS in potential revenue last year during the extended closure of the parks.

The good news is that the parks are back up and running, with Walt Disney World operating successfully enough to bring back more Cast Members and Disneyland Resort reopening after more than a year. Also, the streaming side of things is working very well for Disney at the moment, as Disney+ has been a massive success.

Disney even announced last year that they’ll be turning their focus more towards streaming in the future, which is probably a smart move financially. If they keep putting out more hit shows, it’s likely that the success of Disney+ will outpace that of Netflix in the future. That could be a great way for the company to make up its losses from the pandemic.

We’ll continue to keep an eye on Disney’s financial earnings and keep you updated as we get more details. Stay tuned to AllEars for all the Disney news and info you need to know!

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What do you think of Chapek and Iger’s salary cuts? Let us know in the comments.