Microsoft’s chief govt Satya Nadella earned $79.1m (£61m) final 12 months, an increase of 63% in comparison with his compensation the 12 months earlier than.
That was regardless of a request from Mr Nadella to scale back one ingredient of his pay bundle due to cybersecurity flaws on the tech large – which resulted in him getting $5m lower than he in any other case would have.
In frequent with many tech corporations, Microsoft has minimize hundreds of jobs this 12 months, together with many in its gaming division.
However in a proxy statement filed with the US monetary regulator, the board stated the corporate’s income grew by 16% within the 12 months to 30 June 2024.
“Mr. Nadella agreed that the Firm’s efficiency was extraordinarily robust,” Microsoft’s compensation committee wrote in a letter to shareholders.
It added he requested them “to contemplate departing from the established efficiency metrics and cut back his money incentive to replicate his private accountability” over quite a lot of cyber assaults.
One such assault was reported in July 2023 by Microsoft, the place hackers gained entry to the e-mail accounts of round 25 organisations, together with authorities companies.
Microsoft stated the assault originated in China, although the Chinese language embassy in London referred to as this “disinformation”.
The fiscal interval runs as much as 30 June 2024 – simply weeks earlier than the massive internet outage which affected Microsoft Home windows PCs, inflicting chaos all over the world.
Whereas that was not a cyber assault, later in July Microsoft apologised for another outage which was brought on by a cyber assault.
The compensation committee stated it decreased Mr Nadella’s money pay by greater than half, to $5.2m.
That represents lower than 7% of his complete pay.
The majority of his pay, $71.2m, was made up of inventory choices.
Excessive Pay Centre director Luke Hildyard stated “superficially” the earnings made sense given Microsoft’s robust monetary efficiency.
“Nevertheless, we would additionally ask whether or not the additional $79 million on prime of $49 million final 12 months for somebody who’s already value a whole bunch of tens of millions, with more cash than they might spent over a number of lifetimes of absolute luxurious, is actually vital as a reward of incentive,” he instructed the BBC.
“None of Microsoft’s success could be doable with out employees, prospects and wider society so maybe the proceeds of that success must be share just a little extra evenly,” he added.
Elsewhere in large tech, Apple boss Tim Prepare dinner earned $63.2m in 2023, whereas the chief govt of the world’s most beneficial firm Nvidia, Jensen Huang, was paid $34.2m within the 2024 fiscal 12 months.
However none of them come near Tesla boss Elon Musk, whose pay packet might be value up to $56bn.
