Netflix shareholders declined to support a proposal confirming the pay for top executives during a vote at the company’s annual shareholder meeting on Thursday.
The proposal, one of several put up for a vote during the 15-minute meeting whose audio was streamed online, pertained to six “named” executives, including Co-CEOs Greg Peters and Ted Sarandos and Executive Chairman Reed Hastings. The exact tally of the vote will be released in a subsequent SEC filing, the company said at the end of the meeting.
The “say-on-pay” vote is non-binding but it is a rare rebuke of the compensation of media executives at a time of great scrutiny.
In an SEC filing in April, Netflix said Sarandos and Hastings saw a jump in 2022 pay, to about $50 million each. The company’s executive leadership structure changed a few months ago, with longtime exec Peters getting elevated to Co-CEO alongside Sarandos, who holds the same title. Hastings, who co-founded the company and ran it as CEO for 25 years, segued to a role on the board of directors.
Executive compensation has been a controversial topic across the media and tech landscape in recent months given the layoffs and cutbacks reshaping many companies. Top execs are continuing to bring home outsized paydays despite the poor performance of many stocks and the significant degree of belt-tightening. The WGA strike has added another dimension. Earlier this week, WGA West President Meredith Stiehm sent a letter to Netflix shareholders urging them to reject a proposal on exec pay, which she said was “inappropriate” given the strike.
“While investors have long taken issue with Netflix’s executive pay,” Stiehm wrote, “the compensation structure is even more egregious against the backdrop of the strike. In the midst of a disruptive labor dispute, Netflix is asking shareholders to give retroactive advisory approval of the company’s 2022 reported executive compensation totaling over $166 million. By contrast, the proposed improvements the WGA currently has on the table would cost Netflix an estimated $68 million per year.”
The WGA is making a similar request of Comcast shareholders, who will get the chance to weigh in on executive compensation at the media giant’s annual meeting next week.
