It has been revealed that EA's top executives have reportedly decided to forego their annual performance bonuses this year to instead have all employees benefit from an inflated cash pool.
EA has never had that great of a reputation among gamers, and they seem to be worsening their status in the gaming community with every move. However, at the start of 2018, the publishers were listed as one of the best companies to work for.
GameDaily.biz recently interviewed CEO Andrew Wilson and, in their report, it is claimed that the execs working directly under him refused their annual bonuses and had the money diverted so that all employees could benefit.
"Given the Company’s 2019 financial performance, and in order to maintain alignment with our pay-for-performance executive compensation philosophy, our CEO and his staff (including the NEOs) requested that they receive no performance cash bonus award for fiscal 2019," an SEC filing cited by the publication reads.
"The Board (in the case of Mr. Wilson) and the Compensation Committee (in the case of the other NEOs) accepted this request. The bonus funding that would have been allocated to our CEO and his staff (including the NEOs) were contributed to the overall Company bonus pool."
It's not clear how much money is actually involved here, but Wilson's bonus last year was $2.5 million, so we can imagine it being a reasonable spread.
The figure for EA's bonus pool for non-execs is based on the company's overall performance. It's distributed to employees in different departments and the individual share is determined by their personal performances as appraised by managers.
Wilson, who was ranked among the top 100 most overpaid CEO's of 2019, also addressed the company having laid off over 350 employees earlier in the year.
"I don't want to try to defend things, but it's the hardest decision you make as a leader, whether you're a leader of 10 people or 10,000 people it is the hardest decision you make,” he said in an attempt to explain the company's position. “These decisions have to be made for the longevity of an organization who is moving through tremendous disruption as an industry."