Thermo Fisher
May 19
Thermo Fisher Chairman, President, and CEO Marc Casper had a total compensation of $26,390,073 in 2020, a 39% increase from 2019. The Boston Business Journal reported that Casper’s pay package is “the highest it's been in his 12-year tenure.” The two components of his compensation that increased the most were his option award, which more than doubled from 2019 to $8.3 million, and his non-equity incentive compensation, which increased from $4.1 million in 2019 to $7.6 million.
NEICs are based on both financial and non-financial metrics. This year at Thermo Fisher every financial metric paid out at 200% of target. Additionally, the formulas used are complex. For example, with organic revenue growth – for each 0.5% of organic revenue growth above the threshold (up to 5.5%), the payout increased proportionately by 25 percentage points. In addition, “To reflect the additional investment and effort required, for exceptional growth between 5.5% and 6.0%, the payout increased proportionately by 25 percentage points for each 0.25% increase in organic revenue growth up to a maximum opportunity of 200%.”
The non-financial performance score, which was based on a qualitative assessment, was deemed to be 367%.
Casper’s NEIC target was 200% of salary. It is worth noting that his base salary of $1,550,000 is higher than most companies in the S&P 500 and has increased every year for the last three years. This makes his target award $3,100,000 and he was paid at 250% of target for a total of $7,750,000. Such a bonus, which represents a cash windfall for a year that was so hard on so many – and when median employee’s pay went down -- is likely to be unpopular with shareholders.
The pay ratio between the median worker and the CEO increased to 367:1 in The company disclosed a workforce of 67,823 persons (after excluding some international employees) with a median employee compensation of $71,907 in 2020. The company’s proxy statement from last year does not disclose the size of the workforce but lists the wage for the median employee as $80,915, considerably higher, and the pay ration at 235:1.