- Netflix shareholders on June 1 voted against pay packages for top execs totaling up to $109 million.
- The vote is non-binding and could be overruled when the board meets next.
Netflix shareholders voted on June 1 by a nearly three-to-one margin against rich 2023 pay packages for the company's top executives, according to a recent company filing.
The proposed pay plan for six of the company's top leaders would be worth roughly $109 million, per Netflix's proxy statement.
Netflix co-CEO Ted Sarandos stands to earn up to $40 million through a combination of stock options, a performance-based bonus, and $3 million base salary. He made $50.3 million overall last year. C0-CEO Greg Peters, who stepped into the role in January, is in line for a package worth $34.65 million. And founder and executive chairman Reed Hastings, who resigned as co-CEO role earlier this year, is set to earn about $3 million in 2023.
The advisory vote, which is non-binding, isn't the first time Netflix shareholders have pushed back on the compensation structure for its top leaders, who are among the best paid in the industry.
Amid the ongoing Hollywood writers' strike, the Writers Guild of America had called on Netflix investors to reject this year's executive pay raises.
"While investors have long taken issue with Netflix's executive pay, the compensation structure is even more egregious against the backdrop of the strike," WGA West's president Meredith Stiehm wrote in a May letter to Netflix shareholders that was obtained by Deadline.
Last year, only 26.9% of voted shares approved the pay packages for Netflix's top executives, which led the company to hold discussions with investors, according to the annual proxy statement. The company has since instituted a $3 million salary cap for its co-CEOs and has tied 50% of the compensation for Hastings, Peters, and Sarandos to the company's stock, among other changes to its executive compensation structure.
Comcast shareholders received a similar letter from the WGA West president in May ahead of the company's June 7 annual meeting. The prelim ary results of the advisory vote were in favor of the executive pay plan, the company announced the day of the meeting.
This article was first published June 2 and has been updated.