Disney heiress: Bob Iger's $65M payday is 'insane'
Disney CEO Bob Iger’s $65.6 million payday in fiscal 2018 is an “insane” level of compensation, according to company heiress Abigail Disney, the granddaughter of co-founder Roy Disney.
Speaking at the panel during the Fast Company Impact Council, Disney said that an excessive pay gap between the United States’ top executives and their employees has “had a corrosive effect on society.” The social activist and filmmaker noted that Iger could have given a 15% raise to every Disneyland employee out of pocket and still have earned $10 million.
“Let me [be] very clear. I like Bob Iger. I do not speak for my family but only for myself,” Disney later wrote on Twitter. “Other than owning shares (not that many) I have no more say in what happens there than anyone else. But by any objective measure a pay ratio over a thousand is insane.”
Iger earned 1,424 times more the median Disney employee last year, according to a study by Equilar. The company has faced criticism in recent years over its pay policies at Disneyland and other theme parks.
Iger’s $65.6 million in compensation was largely tied to stock grants after Disney’s acquisition of Fox television and film assets, which closed earlier this year.
“Disney has made historic investments to expand the earning potential and upward mobility of our workers, implementing a starting hourly wage of $15 at Disneyland that’s double the federal minimum wage, and committing up to $150 million for a groundbreaking education initiative that gives our hourly employees the opportunity to obtain a college or vocational degree completely free of charge,” the company said in a statement to Fast Company.
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The Disney heiress has declined to specify the size of her inheritance, but told The Cut earlier this year that she “could be a billionaire if I wanted to be a billionaire.” Disney said she has donated roughly $70 million to charity in the last three decades and is a vocal advocate for higher taxes on the rich.