It’s easy to see why CBS chief Les Moonves is so cheery about the television business based on his compensation for 2016: He made a whopping $69.6 million, a 22.5% increase over 2015, according to the company proxy just filed at the SEC.
The package includes $3.5 million in salary, a $32.0 million bonus, $31.95 million in stock awards, no option awards, $956,011 change in pension value, and $1.15 million in other compensation. The last category includes $343,849 in transportation benefits and $537,945 in security.
The increase follows a year in which CBS shares appreciated 35%.
Moonves benefited from a new contract, made in February 2016, making him chairman as well as CEO. That included what CBS describes as “an additional equity-based performance incentive based on the Company’s stock price performance over the period beginning February 18, 2016 and ending June 30, 2019.”
