CEO pay has long been a hot-button issue. For the CEO of Goldman Sachs (NYSE:GS), it got a little hotter because now, David Solomon will have to learn how to live on just $25 million a year.
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The new pay package—much like Netflix’s (NASDAQ:NFLX)–will depend mostly on variable compensation in the form of stock options. Solomon will receive $2 million in base salary, reports note, while also receiving that variable compensation worth about $23 million. This actually represents a pretty healthy pay cut; in 2021, he made $35 million.
There’s a reason, however: Goldman Sachs’ full-year earnings were down 48% in 2022, thanks to declines in both asset management and investment banking operations. Yet even back then, Solomon took home a roughly $30 million one-time award thanks to a tight labor market that would have made finding a new CEO unusually difficult. However, Solomon did save the company money in other ways; he laid off roughly 4,000 workers after paring back the consumer-facing Marcus division.
Overall, analyst consensus currently calls Goldman Sachs stock a Moderate Buy. In addition, with an average price target of $404.63, it has 14.4% upside potential.
