Fox Corp. chairman Rupert Murdoch’s pay dropped to $31.1 million in 2021 for the fiscal year that ended on June 30, while CEO Lachlan Murdoch also saw his pay slip to $27.7 million.
The drop in compensation, according to SEC filings Friday, is due to base salary pay cuts spurred by the pandemic. Rupert Murdoch brought in $34 million the year prior, while Lachlan’s pay was at $29.1. It was also significantly lower than 2019, the year in which the company completed its sale of Fox’s entertainment assets to Disney.
The company says the lower salaries “reduced their aggregate total target compensation by 9%.”
Fox Corp. COO John Nallen also had his pay drop from $13 million to $12.4 million. And CFO Steven Tomsic had a slight uptick in his compensation, from $6.9 million to $7.4 million.
The pay packages were revealed Friday in proxy filings with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.
The drop in compensation for Fox top executives in 2021 continues a pattern that began in pandemic year 2020 for the company.
Rupert Murdoch made significantly less money in 2020 than in 2019, although he still made more than $30 million. Fox, which the Murdochs own 39% of via their family trust, includes Fox Sports, Fox News and the Fox broadcast network, as well as streaming service Tubi. The company bought Clay Travis’ sports media company Outkick to help with its growing sports betting business.
Murdoch decided to forgo his salary between May and September 2020 to help the company weather the effects of the pandemic. His base salary was still more than double most other media CEOs, at $4.2 million. Fox Corp.’s stock price dropped from $37.41 to $29.07, or 22.3%, in 2020.
Fox’s current market cap is $21 billion and the current stock price is $35.1.
Walt Disney Co. officially closed its $71 billion acquisition of 21st Century Fox‘s film and TV assets in March 2019.
Diane Haithman contributed to this report