Netflix Co-CEOs Reed Hastings and Ted Sarandos each saw a slight dip in their total compensation in 2021 compared to 2020, according to a new SEC filing.
The company’s preliminary proxy statement said Hastings made a total of $40.8 million last year, compared with $43.2 million in 2020. Sarandos collected $38.2 million, down from $39.3 million. Last December, Netflix had released guidance for executive compensation, as is its custom. That outlook anticipated Hastings’ pay at $34 million, with Sarandos at $40 million.
The co-heads of the company have different pay structures. Sarandos earned a salary of $20 million, with most of the balance of his compensation coming in the form of option awards. Hastings, who co-founded the company, took a salary of $650,000, with an option award of more than $37 million.
Chief Product Officer Greg Peters was the next-highest-paid Netflix exec, though his package also declined by about $400,000 to almost $20.4 million.
Netflix’s stock price, which helps determine the value of executive pay packages, has been subdued of late. Last January, when the company reported a soft subscriber outlook, shares plunged more than 20%, wiping out all of their gains during Covid. They finished today at $355.88, down almost 2%.
In addition to the executive compensation, the proxy statement said the company’s annual shareholder meeting will be June 2.
Among the agenda items will be the election of board members, including former Netflix Chief Marketing Officer Leslie Kilgore and former Pixar CFO Ann Mather.
Shareholders will also be asked to vote on several management and shareholder proposals, including one put forward by the company to declassify its board. Undoing the current rules, which separate board members into three classes and provide staggered three-year terms, would result in all directors being up for election annually for one-year terms. The proxy statement said the declassification would bring Netflix in line with “more standard large-cap governance structure.”