Netflix said today it plans to award its co-chief operating officers identical compensation packages for 2024 worth $40 million each.Ted Sarandos and Greg Peters will receive a $3 million base salary; a target bonus of $6 million; a RSU award with a total value of $15.5 million and a PSU award also valued at $15 million. The RSUs are time-based restricted stock units. PSUs are performance-based restricted stock units. Netflix calls the packages total target compensation.The numbers in an SEC filing reflect changes in the way Netflix pays its top executives. For one, the board no longer allows execs to chose whether they prefer to be paid in cash or stock. “Historically, Executive Officers have been permitted to allocate compensation to cash salary and stock options. The Committee determined to eliminate this program feature to address shareholder concerns that executives could choose all cash compensation,” the compensation committee said.Sarandos had opted to take very large chunks of his salary in cash over recent years.Netflix is alone among most companies in anticipating pay for the following year, calling the packages total target compensation. The number for Hastings, now executive chair, is $1 million. CFO Spencer Neumann is at $15 million; chief legal officer David Hyman at $11 million.Compensation numbers for company’s on a calendar year don’t formally appear for the previous year until proxy season in the spring.A year ago, Netflix said then co-CEO Reed Hastings would receive a package worth $34.6 million in 2023, and Sarandos one valued at $40 million. Hastings stepped back in January and Peters became co-chief executive.Hastings and Sarandos were awarded packages topping $50 million each for 2022 – an increase for both from the previous year. Sarandos took a base salary of $20 million that year. Netflix said another change is that it now sets fixed base salaries of $3 million for the co-CEOs; $100,000 for the executive chair (Reed Hastings) and $1.5 million for its other executive officers.Media CEO pay has always been high and was front and center during the actors and writers strikes. Netflix has seen shareholders vote against pay several times over the past few years. The votes at the annual meeting called say-on-pay are not binding.
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