- Disney CEO Bob Iger recently called strikers' expectations "not realistic," quickly drawing criticism.
- Actor Sean Gunn and SAG-AFTRA president Fran Drescher called him tone deaf and out of touch.
Disney CEO Bob Iger, who came out of retirement for his reinstatement to the position last November, has drawn criticism and scrutiny around his pay package following his recent comments on the Hollywood writers and actors strike.
In an interview last week with CNBC at the Sun Valley Conference in Idaho, commonly referred to as the "summer camp for billionaires," Iger called the strike disruptive, "very disturbing," and said that the strikers' expectations are "not realistic."
"I respect their right and their desire to get as much as they possibly can in compensation for their people," Iger said of the Writers Guild of America and SAG-AFTRA, the actors' union. "But you also have to be realistic about the business environment and what this business can deliver. It is and has been a great business for all of these people and it will continue to be even through disruptive times. But, being realistic is imperative here."
Iger's comments quickly drew criticism from those involved in the strike, some of whom took the opportunity to point to his pay package from Disney worth tens of millions.
In a picket line interview in Los Angeles on July 14, "Guardians of the Galaxy" actor Sean Gunn pointed out the pay disparity between Bob Iger and Disney's average employee, calling it "a fucking shame."
@apnews "I think that's a shame, Bob!" "Guardians of the Galaxy" actor Sean Gunn questions Bob Iger's salary after the Disney CEO's comments on the Hollywood actors strike. #seangunn #guardiansofthegalaxy #bobiger #actorsstrike #hollywood ♬ original sound - The Associated Press
"I think that when Bob Iger talks about what a shame it is, he needs to remember that in 1980, CEOs like him made 30 times what their lowest-paid worker was making," Gunn said. "Now Bob Iger makes 400 times what his lowest worker is."
So is that true?
CEO pay in general has skyrocketed over the past 40 years. An average CEO in 1978 made around 31 times what their average worker made, according to the Economic Policy Institute. In 2020, the average CEO made 346 times what their average worker made.
At Disney, the median worker pay is $54,256, according to the company's latest proxy statement. Iger's total compensation in 2021, his most recent complete year as CEO, was over $45 million. According his contract announced last November, Iger's base salary is $1 million with potential for a bonus equal to 100% that salary, plus $25 million in Disney equity. That's a total of $27 million — 535 times a Disney employee's median pay. A recent amendment bumped up that bonus potential to 500% of his base salary, further increasing his earning potential to around $31 million.
SAG-AFTRA president Fran Drescher called Iger's comments "terribly repugnant and out of touch, positively tone-deaf."
"There he is, sitting in his designer clothes and just got on his private jet at the billionaire's camp, telling us we're unrealistic when he's making $78,000 a day," Drescher said in a livestream interview with Sen. Bernie Sanders. "How do you deal with someone like that who's so tone-deaf?"
If Iger makes $27 million this year, he'd be making $74,000 per day. If he is awarded his full bonus potential, his total compensation for the contract period would come out to around $84,000 per day.
"If I were that company, I would lock him behind doors and never let him talk to anybody about this," Drescher told Variety. "Because it's so obvious that he has no clue as to what is really happening on the ground with hard working people that don't make anywhere near the salary he is making."
Extreme pay disparity is common across the media industry: Warner Bros. CEO David Zaslav made over $246 million in 2021, which is 2,972 times what his median employee made. Netflix chairman Reed Hastings, who has since left the role of CEO, made over $40 million in 2021, or 202 times the median employee's pay. Comcast CEO Brian Roberts made almost $34 million that same year, 405 times the median.
Under his new contract, Iger could make as much as $31 million in 2023 — less than any of those peers' recent paychecks, but still a number only the very top actors could ever achieve.
"Maybe you should take a look in the mirror and ask yourself, why is that?" Gunn asked, posing the question to Iger about his pay disparity. "And not only why is that, is it okay? Is it morally okay? And if so, why? Why is that okay?"