Tesla Shareholders Should Reject Trillion-Dollar Pay Package for Elon Musk
WASHINGTON, D.C. – Tesla CEO Elon Musk has not earned and does not deserve a $1 trillion pay package, according to a new report released today from Public Citizen.
On Thursday, Tesla’s board of directors will ask shareholders to approve a pay plan for Musk that would grant him approximately $1 trillion in stock and expand his voting powers at the company. The full award would be contingent on Tesla hitting certain milestones over the next 10 years.
Public Citizen’s report highlights four major reasons shareholders should reject the trillion-dollar pay package. First, Musk and his companies rely heavily on government money to survive – funds that his actions have and will likely continue to put in jeopardy. Second, Musk allows other business interests, conspiracy theories, personal vendettas, and rampant drug abuse to distract him from his responsibilities to Tesla. Third, a previous, much smaller Musk pay package has already been ruled “unfair” and “unfathomable” by a court. And fourth, Tesla’s board of directors is not independent and is loyal to Musk over Tesla.
“Calling Musk distracted from his work at Tesla would be an understatement. If Tesla sales depend on the Musk mystique, that brand now flails,” said Bartlett Naylor, financial policy advocate for Public Citizen and author of the report. “When other business ventures are not commanding his attention, Musk has shown an appetite for conspiracy theories, personal attacks, and controversies that constantly put him in the news for unflattering reasons. Musk’s inflammatory behavior and questionable drug habits would get almost any CEO or employee in America fired on the spot.”
Norway’s sovereign wealth fund, Norges Bank Investment Management, said on Tuesday that it had already cast its vote against Musk’s remuneration package.