THE LIST: Who are the best-paid water utility executives?

摘要

With executive pay in water under scrutiny like never before, GWI totted up utility CEO pay packages for the first time in four years, based on 2021 figures. CEOs at investor-owned water utilities take home much fatter pay cheques than their public counterparts, owing to large bonuses and incentive packages. Executives at US investor-owned utilities come out significantly on top, with the total package seemingly unrelated to the size of the population they serve. Most bonuses for executives in the UK and the US are performance-based. However, both salaries and bonuses have risen significantly since 2018 (by an average of 112% for the top ten highest earners) without an equally noticeable rise in environmental performance. As the impact of climate change exposes the role of water utility CEOs to the public eye and the cost-of-living crisis bites worldwide, this is raising pressure to realign performance with stakeholder interests, not just shareholder interests.