Satya Nadella asked for pay cut, Microsoft handed him $79.1 million

Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella‘s total pay package for the fiscal year 2023-24 was $79.1 million—a 63% increase from the previous fiscal year.

According to proxy filings filed with the US Security Exchange Commission, Microsoft gave Nadella a pay rise of more than $30 million. Last year, he had earned $48.5 million.

Most of his pay is in the form of stock, with the rise in pay in tandem with Microsoft’s valuation, which reached $3 trillion. The software giant’s shares soared 31.2% during the fiscal year ended June 30, 2024.

However, Nadella had requested the board’s compensation committee that his cash incentive reflect the cybersecurity issues the company had to mitigate over the last year. Therefore, Nadella’s cash incentive of $5.2 million was less than the $10.7 million he was eligible for. If not for the security breaches, his total compensation would have been $84.6 million.

In July 2023, Microsoft revealed that Chinese intelligence had hacked into Microsoft email accounts belonging to two dozen US government agencies.

In January, Microsoft reported another cyberattack. Russian intelligence had gained access to some of the company’s top executives’ email accounts.

In a memo, Nadella told Microsoft employees that the company would prioritise security above all else.

“Mr. Nadella agreed that the Company’s performance was extremely strong, but reflecting on his personal commitment to security and his role as the CEO, asked the Board to consider departing from the established performance metrics and reduce his cash incentive to reflect his personal accountability for the focus and speed required for the changes that today’s cybersecurity threat landscape showed were necessary,” the compensation committee wrote in its review.