As part of News Corp’s ongoing campaign against the ABC, The Australian reported on Saturday that managing director Mark Scott enjoyed a pay rise from $805,392 in 2012-13 to $823,613 in 2013-14.
The story then went on to speculate as to the identity of the executives who shared in the packages ranging between $465,000 and $555,000 which rounded out the top six paid staff at the ABC.
A couple of weeks earlier, the Herald Sun did its annual beat-up on so-called “fat cat CEOs” working for Victorian councils.
The tabloid had some extra data to work with this year because Melbourne City Council voluntarily gave up on the fuzzy bands system and actually spelled out the specific contractual arrangements of its six most senior executives in the 2013-14 annual report.
Given News Corp’s apparent editorial interest in executive salaries, it is somewhat surprising that neither The Australian nor the Herald Sun has yet reported that the Murdoch family reached a record $64 million in 2013-14. The Fox demerger has opened the door to some dubious salary double dipping by the 83-year-old man who now chairs two public companies.
Crikey has gone back and looked at 16 years of Murdoch pay data and can today present it comprehensively for the first time. All figures are in US dollars.
2013-14 News Corp
Robert Thomson — $12.47 million (up from $2.6 million in 2012-13)
Rupert Murdoch — $8.7 million (zero in 2012-13)
See page 46 of proxy statement.
2013-14 21st Century Fox
Rupert Murdoch — $29.25 million
Chase Carey — $28 million
James Murdoch — $18.7 million
Murdochs received $48 million or 52.5% of disclosed top five pay of $91.35 million.
See page 54 of proxy statement.
2012-13 for demerged 21st Century Fox
Rupert Murdoch — $28.9 million
Chase Carey — $27 million
James Murdoch — $17 million
Murdochs received $45.9 million or 50.4% of $91 million paid to top five.
See page 67 of Fox proxy statement.
2011-12 News Corp pre-demerger
Rupert Murdoch — $30 million
Chase Carey — $24.75 million
Roger Ailes — $21.1 million
James Murdoch — $16.84 million
Murdochs received $46.84 million or 45.25% of $103.5 million paid to top five.
See page 56 of News Corp proxy statement .
2010-11
Rupert Murdoch — $33.3 million
Chase Carey — $30.15 million
David DeVoe — $18.24 million
Roger Ailes — $15.55 million
James Murdoch — $11.9 million
Murdochs received $45.2 million or 41.4% of $109 million paid to top five.
See page 43 of proxy statement.
2009-10
Chase Carey — $26 million
Rupert Murdoch — $22.72 million
Roger Ailes — $14 million
James Murdoch — $10.3 million
Murdochs received $33 million or 41.2% of $80 million paid to top five.
See page 43 of proxy statement.
2008-09
Roger Ailes — $23.68 million
Peter Chernin — $22.22 million
Rupert Murdoch — $19.88 million
James Murdoch — $9.2 million
Murdochs received $29 million or 35.13% of $82.8 million paid to top five.
See page 29 of proxy statement.
2007-08
Peter Chernin — $28.8 million
Rupert Murdoch — $27.55 million
Roger Ailes — $19.9 million
James Murdoch — $11 million
Murdochs received — $39.8 million or 41% of $97 million paid to top five.
See page 29 of proxy statement.
2006-07
Peter Chernin — $34 million
Rupert Murdoch — $32.14 million
David DeVoe — $11.73 million
James Murdoch — $11.2 million (from BSkyB)
Murdochs received $43.3 million or 46.6% of $92.8 million paid to top five.
See page 34 of 2006-07 proxy statement.
2005-06
Peter Chernin — $42.53 million
Rupert Murdoch — $25.9 million
James Murdoch — $4 million (from BSkyB)
Murdochs received $29.9 million or 29.3% of $102 million paid to top five.
See page 29 of proxy statement.
2004-05
Peter Chernin — $28.25 million
Rupert Murdoch — $23.64 million
David DeVoe — $8.63 million
Lachlan Murdoch — $7.97 million
Murdochs received $31.61 million or 41.8% of $75.46 million paid to top five.
See page 24 of proxy statement.
2003-04
Rupert Murdoch — $20.65 million
James and Lachlan Murdoch together received $5.8 million but weren’t in top five.
Murdochs received $26.45 million or 45.3% of the $58.39 million paid to top five.
See page 57 of annual report.
2002-03
Peter Chernin — $17.34 million
Rupert Murdoch — $14.1 million
James and Lachlan Murdoch together received $5.2 million but weren’t in top five.
Murdochs received $19.3 million or 35% of $55.1 million paid to top five.
See page 55 of annual report.
2001-02
Peter Chernin — $17.89 million
Chase Carey — $10.78 million
Rupert Murdoch — $9.21 million
James and Lachlan Murdoch together received $4.48 million but weren’t in top five.
Murdochs received $13.7m or 44% of $31 million paid to top five.
2000-01
Peter Chernin — $20.13 million
Rupert Murdoch — $7.58 million
Chase Carey — $5.65 million
James and Lachlan Murdoch together received $5.66 million but weren’t in top five.
Murdochs received $13.24 million or 28% of $47.7 million paid to top five.
1999-2000
Peter Chernin — $11.85 million
Rupert Murdoch — $6.53 million
Lachlan Murdoch — $3.14 million
Murdochs received $9.67 million or 30.2% of $32 million paid to top five.
1998-99
Peter Chernin — $11.72 million
Rupert Murdoch — $6.34 million
Rupert Murdoch received $6.34 million or 20.45% of $31 million paid to top five.
Neither Lachlan’s nor James’ pay was disclosed.
This all comes to just under US$500 million, but when you add Lachlan’s board fees over the past nine years, undisclosed payments to the boys in their early years, Elisabeth’s salary after the Shine acquisition and Rupert’s pre-1998 salary back to January 1953, the total figure would be above A$600 million and rising at more than $1 million a week.Surely this has to be some sort of a world record in corporate greed by a billionaire family.
This story originally appeared on Crikey.
Stephen founded Crikey in February 2000, and has remained as a contributor since selling it in 2005. He’s a former political staffer and local government councillor who also pursues shareholder advocacy as a two-time former director of the Australian Shareholders’ Association. He also spent two years working for the Alliance for Gambling Reform.
