United's CEO Skips 2017 Bonus to Show 'Accountability' — But Still Made $9.56 Million
United CEO Oscar Munoz saw his 2017 pay nearly halved that of the year before, following a number of public relation disasters the airline faced throughout the year.
In 2017, Munoz took home a total of $9.56 million. While it may seem like a lot, the total is nearly half of the amount of cash Munoz received in 2016, United said in a filing on Monday. In a letter to employees, Munoz detailed that he deferred the bonus from United's compensation committee.
"I felt it was important to send a message about the culture of accountability and integrity that we are building here as a United team," CNBC reports that Munoz said in the letter to employees. "We had some incredible successes in 2017, but also some setbacks."
In addition to the pay cut for Munoz, United Continental Holdings, the airline's parent company, is getting a new chairman. In Monday's filing, United said that its current chairman, Robert Milton, who is the former CEO of Star Alliance partner Air Canada, will not seek reelection. Another of its board members, Laurence Simmons, will also not seek reelection. In all, the number of members on the board will be reduced from 16 to 14 members.
Of course, the largest of the public relations disasters to hit United in 2017 came in April with the dragging incident of Dr. David Dao. Then, last month, United was behind another major PR disaster when a dog was killed after a flight attendant forced a passenger to place the dog in the overhead bin.
The headline on this story was corrected to show that Munoz skipped, rather than deferred, his bonus.
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