Netflix Sets Reed Hastings’ And Ted Sarandos’ Pay For 2022: $34M And $40M, Respectively

Netflix said Tuesday that the compensation committee of its board of directors has set the annual salaries and stock option allocations for 2022 for co-CEOs Reed Hastings and Ted Sarandos. They amount to, respectively, $34 million and $40 million.

Netflix is one of the few companies that pre-announces anticipated compensation for its top executives. High executive pay has become a hot-button issue for shareholders of media and entertainment companies in recent years, including Netflix.

Salaries of publicly traded companies’ top five highest-paid execs are disclosed in annual SEC proxy statements. They come out in the spring  for companies like Netflix that operate on a regular calendar year. But Netflix is one of the few that pre-announces numbers, and the stock options it grants are awarded fully vested on a monthly basis throughout the year. The 2022 grants will start in January.

Netflix said Hastings’ 2022 package includes $650,00 in salary and $34 million in an annual stock option allocation. Sarandos, the chief content officer who was named co-CEO in the summer of 2020, is taking an even split of $20 million in salary and $20 million in stock, according to an SEC filing.

The total compensation is for both would be about flat from 2020, when Hastings and Sarandos earned, respectively, $43.2 million and $39.3 million.