THE
SAL ARY
CLUB
A NUMBER OF HIGH-PROFILE
CEOS ARE TURNING DOWN
BUMPER PAY PACKETS AND
PUSHING FOR A NOMINAL
ONE-DOLLAR ANNUAL WAGE.WORDS FINBARR TOESLANDW
hat do Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg,
Snapchat’s Evan Spiegel and Alphabet’s
Larry Page all have in common? Besides being
CEOs of some of the world’s largest tech companies, they
also all take a US$1 salary.
On the surface, it may seem counterintuitive for a CEO
to reject a higher salary and accept a single dollar a year.
But in the vast majority of cases, cash compensation is
only one part of the total executive remuneration package
CEOs will be receiving, with alternative payments such as
stock options or performance-linked bonuses often being
far more valuable.
By foregoing a large cash salary and being compensated
in company equity, CEOs prove they are closely aligned
with shareholders’ aims and inextricably link their personal
financial performance to business success.
Other CEOs simply don’t need the income. “Many of
the CEOs who elect a one-dollar wage are founders of their
companies, so they probably have enough ownership in
the company to a point where they do not need to be paid
a salary,” says Courtney Yu, Director of Research at Equilar,
an executive compensation research firm.
$1
24 | theceomagazine.com