Microsoft’s CEO requested a pay cut—but his total compensation still went up more than $30 million

Satya Nadella asked Microsoft to reduce his pay—but his total compensation still went up more than $30 million.

Transcript

00:00Microsoft CEO, Satya Nadella, asked for a pay cut after the company was hit by a series of cybersecurity attacks.

00:06But his total compensation still went up by more than $30 million.

00:10Last year, Nadella's payback was more than $48.5 million, and it's rocketed to more than $79 million this year.

00:18The big reason? Performance-based awards.

00:20His base salary has stayed at $2.5 million,

00:24but he's also received performance-based stock awards worth more than $71 million and performance-based cash incentives of $5.2 million.

00:32But his cash incentive was actually meant to be much higher.

00:35Nadella requested his incentive be cut by more than half,

00:39meaning he would have been awarded $10.66 million based on the financial and operational performance of the company.