Take-home Salary Pay Cut In 2021? Billionaire Michael Dell Feels You, Slices Off Most Of Own Yearly Pay

For a man’s whose net worth is estimated at $50.7bn Michael Dell isn’t short of spare change, but he was paid a fraction of what his corporate generals received in fiscal 2021 after agreeing to forgo a huge chunk of his salary.

The compensation packages received by the other Dell executives for the company’s fiscal 2021 ended 31 January swelled after the targets for revenue and profit were surpassed, according to material filed with the SEC for an Annual General Meeting of Shareholders scheduled for 22 June.

The filing reiterates that Dell, the founder, Chairman and CEO of the tech biz, agreed to forgo his base salary of $950,000 as of 2 May last year, the start of Dell’s Q2 of fiscal ’21.

“Mr. Dell’s voluntary waiver resulted in a 73 per cent reduction in actual salary received relative to the annual base salary rate as specified in Mr Dell’s employment agreement,” the filing says.

The weighting of the targets for the Incentive Business Plan (IPB) for the year included a 50 per cent score for Non-GAAP revenue and the rest connected to achieving Non-GAAP operating profit. Dell beat though those financial goals, growing each 6 and 3 per cent respectively.

But given the sacrifice, Dell took home a salary of £255,769, non-equity incentive plan compensation (NIPC) of $665,000 and $9,646 for all other compensation. This left him with a total of $930,415 compared to $3.35m in 2020 and $$3.62m in 2019. We wept for him too.

As for his right hand, CFO Thomas Sweet got $7.3m in total, including a base salary of $750,000, a bonus of $2.25m, stock awards of $5.24m, NIPC of $1.267m and $44,472 for all other compensation.

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COO and vice chairman Jeffrey Clarke received a whopping $15.05m, mostly comprised of a $12.637m stock award, with a base salary of $881,160, an NIPC of $1.489m and $49,847 for all other compensation.

William Scannell, president of global sales and customer operations, received $12.01m, again mostly made up of a $10.24m stock award, with base salary at $750,000, a $1.06m NIPC and $39,730 for all other compensation.

Across the wider company, Dell said it had "implemented cost-saving measures that included global hiring limitations and reductions in consulting and contractor costs," for its 2021 financial year.

The company benefited from the working- and learning-from-home revolution caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, driving PC sales through the roof. The enterprise infrastructure division fared less well as customers bought servers, storage and networking kit in lower volumes.

It's nice to see Dell the man leading from the front. Just don't mention tax. ®