In times of seemingly open and blatant exploitation of employees in the gaming industry, financial firm aptly called As You Sow published a report on the Most Overpaid CEOs from 2015 to 2019, with Activision and EA CEOs making the list.
No, we're not going to spew socialist propaganda here, because we're very well aware of how economies should and do function - the expertise of someone who successfully steered the company for more than a decade obviously deserves a bigger piece of the pie.
That being said, some of the salaries on the list are so astronomically high that it boggles the mind, which is how As You Sow's report came about in the first place.
Unsurprisingly, Activision Blizzard's CEO Bobby Kotick is number 45 on the list of most overpaid CEOs, earning around $28.7 million and about $12.8 million in excess pay. According to performance alone, Kotick's salary should've been at around $15.8 million, but he's received 81 per cent more.
This means that Kotick annually makes 306 salaries of an average Activision Blizzard employee, which for your information is 25.5 years worth of labour.
EA's CEO Andrew Wilson made the list in 98th place, earning around $35.7 million, with about $19.7 in excess pay. That's 371 average salaries in EA or 30.9 years of labour by a worker on EA's median pay.
This is where EA's CEO actually beats Activision's, as Wilson's expected salary based on performance would've been roughly $16 million, even though in reality it was at $35.7 million - 123 per cent higher than it should've been.
Interestingly enough, when it comes to approval rates of such high salaries, both EA and Activision Blizzard did really well, scoring 97 and 92 per cent approval rates by shareholders. Needless to say, neither Kotick nor Wilson are encountering much friction.
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At the same time, these are the only two gaming companies prominently featured on the list, and considering that both rewarded their employees with , the report sets a proper tone for the future they've got in mind.
You can find As You Sow's full report .
Battlefield V, WWII shooter by DICE and Electronic Arts
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