EA Boss Andrew Wilson Got a $20m Pay Cut Last Year, But It's Complicated

ign.com:

EA CEO Andrew Wilson took a pay cut last year at the behest of shareholders, and we finally know by about how much: a whopping $20 million. But, as with most executive pay scenarios, the intricacies of Wilson's pay are not quite that simple.

In the previous year, 2021, Wilson earned $39.2 million between his base salary of $1.25 million and a bundle of various stock awards, grants, and other types of extra compensation that are typical for top executives. But the EA board of directors was under pressure to reform those numbers. A 2020 "say on pay" vote by shareholders had indicated that only 26% of the company's shareholders were happy with the current pay schemes, after similar votes in previous years had indicated overwhelming support for executive pay.

The wave of displeasure was at least partially instigated by CtW Investment Group, an organization that over the years has taken a number of companies to task over high executive pay, including EA and Activision Blizzard. The organization accused EA of "developing a special award grant addiction," noting how much of Wilson's compensation was based on massive bonuses. And indeed the following year, a $30 million stock grant was awarded to Wilson in 2021 to help "retain and motivate" him.

While the shareholder 'say on pay' votes are non-binding, they do take the temperature of the shareholders, and upsetting an overwhelming number of them is sure to have consequences. So for 2022, EA opted to skip a number of Wilson's usual major bonuses. While his base salary technically increased from $1.25 million to $1.3 million, absent certain bonuses, he earned $19.9 million total in fiscal 2022, a nearly $20 million drop from 2021, according to EA's filing.

We don't know yet what