Fox Heads Rupert and Lachlan Murdoch Take Double-Digit Pay Cuts in 2022

Rupert’s compensation dropped 40% to $18.4 million, while his son is earning $21.7 million, a 28% decline from last year

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Rupert and Lachlan Murdoch are hardly going hungry as the leaders of Fox Corp., though the pair did see their pay packages reduced this year.

Fox chairman Rupert Murdoch took home $18.4 million in the fiscal year ending June 30, 2022, a 40% decrease from the $31.1 million he earned the previous year. Meanwhile, Fox executive chairman and CEO Lachlan Murdoch earned $21.7 million, according to an SEC filing, down 27.6% from his 2021 pay of $27.7 million. Also revealed in the SEC filing Friday was that Lachlan signed a contract extension last year that will see him continue to lead Fox Corp. through at least June 2026.

Fox slightly missed Wall Street expectations in its fourth-quarter earnings report from August. Though revenue rose 5% from the prior year to $3.03 billion, net income did not improve as much as anticipated. But overall, Fox Corps. — which includes the Fox broadcast network, Fox News, Fox Sports and Tubi — has fared far better than most media stocks with its share price falling just 1% in the last month.

The Murdochs weren’t the only executives to see their pay packages shrink either as CFO Steve Tomsic, chief legal and policy officer Viet Dinh and COO John Nallen also collected smaller compensation than last year. These dips are partially attributed to a decline in non-equity incentive compensation varied pension and deferred compensation changes.

Last year, Lachlan saw his total compensation fall from $29.2 million in the previous fiscal year, a decrease of about 5%. Rupert’s total compensation fell from $34 million to $31.1 million.

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