Delta CEO received $13.1 million complete compensation in 2020, together with inventory awards
Other Delta executives also saw a drop in their pay, including a 50% pay cut during the pandemic and the elimination of cash bonuses. Delta earlier this year paid out bonuses to managers, directors, and senior vice presidents below the executive level, ranging from thousands of dollars to hundreds of thousands of dollars. The company called it a “one-time adjustment” to bring most employees’ wage cuts to a similar level of 20-30%.
Bastian’s salary fell 75% last year from $ 945,833 he received in 2019 after refusing to take a salary from April 2020 through the end of the year. Salary is usually only a small fraction of the total financial compensation of a CEO at large publicly traded companies.
The value of Bastian’s share and option awards is based on the share price in early February 2020 when the share awards were made under a typical annual schedule.
The cap on executive compensation related to airline financing through the federal CARES Act last year did not come into effect until March 24, 2020. Delta received $ 5.6 billion in federal aid last year.
Delta included a chart in its filing with the US Securities and Exchange Commission showing that the shares were worth far less at $ 4.9 million through the end of 2020, while the options were below the exercise price and were worthless at the time.
However, Delta’s share price has since increased from $ 40.21 on December 31, 2020 to $ 47 on Friday. This makes the shares worth more even though the current share price is still below the option exercise price of $ 58.89. Delta stock closed at just $ 19.19 on May 15, 2020, roughly two months after the pandemic began.
The American bailout plan, passed in March 2021, extended the compensation limits for airlines receiving the funding until April 1, 2023.
Delta’s filing with the SEC on Friday said the board’s compensation committee refused to adjust the awards for the 2020 long-term incentive plan, “despite the likelihood that officials may never get their intended value.”
However, in a December SEC filing, Delta announced that the Board of Directors’ Compensation Committee had approved a new management incentive plan for “Cash Incentive Reward Opportunities beginning January 1, 2021”. The plan would not pay managers more than the “target bonus level” if other employees were not receiving profit-sharing bonuses.
Chief Information Officer Rahul Samant received a $ 300,000 bonus on top of his $ 343,750 salary last year after the airline undertook a massive relocation from home for many employees.
About the author
Comments are closed.