AT&T CEO John Stankey’s pay for 2021 rose 18% over the previous year to $24.8 million, per the company’s SEC filing Tuesday.
His base salary for the year, his first full year as CEO, was $2.4 million, with a non-equity incentive plan compensation of $6.88 million. His stock awards totaled $13.42 million, with “other” compensation listed at $643,669.
In 2020, Stankey made $21 million and the year before that he was paid $22.5 million.
AT&T did not disclose the 2021 pay for WarnerMedia CEO Jason Kilar among its other top executives. AT&T is in the process of spinning off WarnerMedia to Discovery, Inc., a transaction that has received regulatory approval from both companies’ boards, the U.S. government, the European Commission and Discovery’s shareholders. The deal is expected to close early next month.
Meanwhile, retired executive chairman Randall Stephenson was paid $16.3 million last year versus $29 million in 2020, when he was still CEO of AT&T for a portion of the year. AT&T CFO Pascal Desroches made $11.75 million in 2021, CEO Latin America & GMO Lori Lee was paid $7.5 million, general counsel David McAtee was paid $10.5 million and CEO AT&T Communications Jeff McElfresh made $12.3 million. Retired senior executive vice president CFO John Stephens was paid $4.1 million compared with his 2020 total of $16.1 million while he was still on the job.
Stankey’s large pay bump for 2021 is nothing compared to the compensation increase for some of his competitors. Earlier this month, WarnerMedia buyer Discovery disclosed that Discovery CEO David Zaslav received a massive $203 million stock option grant last year that inflated his total 2021 compensation package to a staggering $246.6 million.