Snowden takes third
The annual ‘Top 100 Most Overpaid CEOs in the US’ list is out and Penn Entertainment chief executive Jay A. Snowden finds himself in third place.
Snowden pocketed $65.9m last year
The annual report by non-profit watchdog group As You Sow revealed Snowden’s 2022 pay ratio in relation to the average Penn worker. The shocking total of 1942:1 means he effectively earned $1,942 to every average worker’s $1 last year. Snowden pocketed $65.9m last year, while the median annual salary for the Pennsylvania firm’s employees was $33,930.
Snowden sits at number three in the overpaid CEOs list behind Estee Lauder Companies Inc. CEO Fabrizio Freda (1,965:1). However, Warner Bros. Discovery, Inc. CEO David M. Zaslav tops the table with a total ratio of 2,972:1 in relation to the average worker’s salary.
Not alone
Snowden wasn’t the only gambling CEO to make the top 100 either. As You Sow took to Twitter to share the 866:1 ratio of Las Vegas Sands’ Robert Goldstein:
Goldstein’s $31.2m 2022 salary contrasts against his company’s worker average of $35,879. He ranked seventh out of the most overpaid CEOs in the country. Caesars Entertainment’s Tom Reeg was in 54th place with $22.6m, and Wynn Resort’s Max Maddox found himself in 91st position with $12.9m.
Snowden’s true compensation should have amounted to just $16m
According to the compiler of the list, impact investment group HIP Investor, Snowden’s true compensation should have amounted to just $16m. HIP, which compared CEO pay at S&P 500 companies to company financial performance, concluded that Goldstein and Reeg’s compensation should have reached just $13.8m and $15.5m, respectively.
Eye-catching figures
Goldstein and Sands also ranked third in the country among the most overpaid CEOs based on their firm’s shareholder returns and “how many institutional shareholders voted against their pay packages.” The report revealed Penn’s high ranking came from 97% of the relevant shareholders voting against their CEO’s compensation.
Ultimately, stated As You Sow, the 100 execs on the list received $3.8bn in pay for 2022 but underperformed for their firm’s shareholders. It concluded that bonuses paid to 82% of S&P 500 CEOs were at or above 100% of target, positing that this should reveal to the public and shareholders that “performance expectations set for CEOs are too low.”