Nintendo execs are getting a paltry sum compared to their industry counterparts. In a recent report, Shigeru Miyamoto and others only get $1.2 to 2.4 million per year.
The news comes from the recent Nintendo fiscal report for the year 2020. The published document shows all the inner financial dealings within the company. In page 41, it shows the salary for key Nintendo execs.
These key exec salaries include the one for Nintendo President Shuntaro Furukawa. It also has the salaries for director Shigeru Miyamoto and GM Shinya Takahashi. All three salaries, while high, are still within reason compared to others within the industry.
Video game industry execs are massively overpaid
Executive salaries in the video games industry are some of the highest in the world. For example, reports about Activision’s Bobby Kotick shows he earns $28,698,375 every year. This comes in as high as 306 times the average salary of regular staff.
It’s also crucial to note that 92% of Activision’s shareholders approved this last June. CtW Investment Group, a shareholder group, tried to question this amount. Even then, they did not get the right majority to act upon it.
There is an almost similar story with Electronic Arts. CEO Andrew Wilson is getting $35,728,764, with a 97% approval rate from shareholders. These numbers go as much as 371 times the salary of an average EA employee.
Other key figures in the company, like CFO Blake Jorgensen and CTO Kenneth Moss, also get more. Jorgensen himself gets $10 million on special equities, while Moss receives $7 million. These come on top of their annual $6.5 million and $5.5 million respectively.
To put this into perspective, America’s companies have a lower ratio. The average across the board is 271 to 1 ratio on CEO vs. average staffer. These numbers indicate that Kotick and others are grossly overpaid.
Miyamoto earns less than $1.8 million per year
Among Nintendo execs, President Shuntaro Furukawa earns the most of the bunch. He brings home ¥258 million or $2.4 million per annum. Miyamoto comes next at ¥192 million ($1.79 million) and Takahashi at ¥132 million ($1.23 million).
While these are still high, they are normal or much below the standard in the US. It’s also safe to say that these men can get more if they want. The level of humility in their salaries harkens back to their time during Nintendo’s near demise.
During this time, Satoru Iwata cut his salary by half to help prevent layoffs. Miyamoto and others also gave up 20 to 30% of their salaries.
Nintendo execs have a positive history of being helpful to the company. They likely don’t want to get too much while having 800 people laid off in their workplace.
Images courtesy of Nintendo/Youtube Screenshot