Illustration by Mel Haasch; Cindy Ord/Getty Images; Paul Citone for Variety; Courtesy of Live Nation; Gregg Deguire for BillboardIn the first year of a five-year employment contract, the London-born, Los Angeles-based Grainge earned $150.3 million, nearly six times the $25.6 million paid to second-place finisher, executive chairman/CEO of both Sphere Entertainment Co. and Madison Square Garden Entertainment.
Due to the size of the transition award, Grainge’s $7.5 million base salary accounted for just 5% of his 2023 compensation, a relatively small figure but not the lowest of the group. Söderström’s $300,000 base salary amounted to just 2% of his $14.7 million compensation. Lousada’s $5 million base salary made up 29% of his total compensation and was the highest percentage on the list.
Instead of receiving a large, guaranteed salary, top executives at public companies are increasingly paid based on their performances on metrics such as revenue growth, adjusted EBITDA growth and share price gains. “Shareholders typically prefer that at least half of a CEO’s equity awards be based upon performance criteria,” says, vp at ISS-Corporate, a Rockville, Md.-based provider of data and analytics to corporations.
For most executives, performance-based pay comes in the form of company stock. Grainge’s five-year employment contract, which took effect April 1, 2023, reduced his base salary by 72% and added stock-based compensation that accounts for 57% of his target pay package. By putting Grainge’s earnings and shareholders’ interests in better alignment, UMG followed the practices of other public companies.