Netflix’s Reed Hastings, Ted Sarandos See Jump In 2022 Pay Packages To About $50 Million Each

Jill Goldsmith
·2 min read
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Reed Hastings saw his total pay package jump by about $10 million in 2022 to $51 million on a new stock option grant. Co-CEO Ted Sarandos pulled in total compensation of $50.3 million, up from $38.2 million, also on a bigger option grant.

The streaming company in SEC documents Friday revealed that Hastings earned a base salary of $650,000, with the bulk of his package, $49.4 million, in option awards. Sarandos had a $20 million base salary, with options awards of $28.5 million.

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Unusual among big publicly traded companies, Netflix lets executives decide if they prefer to be paid in cash or stock options. Sarandos has always taken a very large chunk in cash. Options can be considered at risk since they usually vest over time and their value can change depending on the stock price. Netflix has tangled with shareholders in recent years over its executive compensation.

Hastings and Sarandos were co-CEOs last year. In January, Netflix co-founder Hastings segued to a executive chairman role. Sarandos and former chief operating officer and chief product officer Greg Peters are now co-CEOs.

The numbers came out in Netflix’s annual proxy statement that lists pay packages for the top five highest-paid execs.

Peters pulled in a base salary of $16 million, option awards worth $11.5 million plus other compensation for a total of $28 million last year. CFO Spencer Neumann’s package was $7 million in base pay, $10 million in options for $17 million.

The proxy said that in determining Hastings’ pay, the board’s Compensation Committee “acknowledged his accomplishments in continuing to develop and evolve the business strategy for the Company, the performance of the Company relative to this strategy and his ability to attract and retain senior management.”

For Sarandos, the filing said, “consideration was given to his role as co-Chief Executive Officer, in addition to his role as Chief Content Officer…competitive market compensation paid by other similarly-situated companies, his global stature as a leading media executive and his role in obtaining globally relevant content for the Company’s international expansion, his significant contributions to the Company’s original content strategy, and the market demand for high-level content programming talent.”

Netflix will hold its annual meeting of shareholders June 8.

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