Centene

Annual Meeting: April 27

Centene CEO Michael Neidorff’s total compensation for 2020 was $24,956,777. This included, among other components, an increase in salary. According to the proxy statement, “The Compensation Committee believed an increase in base salaries was required to reflect the increased size and complexity of the business.” Neidorff has been CEO since 1996 and the increase in the salary was a pittance to him. After all, he also had $51,445,807 in awards that vested this year.

Neidoroff currently has $240,120,000 in non-qualified deferred compensation. This makes his one-year salary increase of $300,000 in pay an apt symbol of excess. In fact, Centene has been on As You Sow’s annual list of overpaid CEOs for multiple years. Neidorff was number 17 on As You Sow’s latest list of 100 Overpaid CEOs.

Last year, more than 30 percent of shareholders voted against Centene’s compensation package for a variety of reasons. While the company has taken steps to address some shareholder concerns (for example, equity grants will be subject to a double-trigger vesting acceleration in the event of a change-in-control), the fundamental issue of the overall scope of pay remains unaddressed. This issue is expressed in the succinct explanation against pay last year from Capital Group: “CEO compensation is too generous.”

The high amount of total   compensation is present again this year. In its analysis of Equilar data, HealthExec found that Centene was “the highest paid and the only healthcare CEO to crack the top 10 list” of 100 highest paid CEOs this year. This comes as the company faces multiple challenges, including 4th quarter losses and the decision to lay off 6% of its workforece (around 3,000 employees).

The pay ratio of the median employee to the CEO was 362:1.