Deliveroo’s chief executive, Will Shu, was handed a near 16% basic pay rise this year after taking home a £519,200 salary and £5.2m share payout last year.
The takeaway courier boss will receive basic pay of £600,000 this year and is set to receive another near £5m of shares in April 2023, as part of a £30m package over the next six years, according to the group’s annual report published on Wednesday.
Alex Marshall, the president of gig-workers union IWGB, criticised the large payouts, which came, he said, at a time when couriers – forced by Deliveroo to pay their own fuel and vehicle expenses – were facing an unprecedented increase in the cost of living and fuel.
“These couriers put in a huge shift, working all through the pandemic to get food out to isolating families, but like many workers, they are paying for the price of the pandemic while bosses line their pockets,” he said.
Deliveroo claims, based on a rider survey, that 85% of its riders globally are satisfied or very satisfied working for the company, adding that recruitment and retention rates had “remained robust” last year despite rising job vacancies in the UK and elsewhere.
Shu’s latest rise in basic pay comes after a hefty 47% jump in basic pay between 2020 and last year as well as 33.3m of shares he received before the company listed on the stock market a year ago. That stock is worth almost £40m at today’s share price.
The £5.2m in shares Shu received in December, and those positioned for April next year, are part of an additional 27.1m shares package lined up at the time of the initial public offering, and which is gradually being handed to him over the next six years. Those shares were worth £105.6m when first awarded but have dived in value since Deliveroo’s flotation in March to just over £30m at today’s share price.
Shares have been hit by concerns about new EU rules on rights for gig economy workers that could increase costs for Deliveroo, as well as a general fall in tech stocks and concerns about the company’s ability to make a profit.
The drop in Deliveroo’s share price has hit bonus payouts for Deliveroo’s chief financial officer Adam Miller as well as for Shu.
Miller’s basic pay for this year has risen just over 14% to £500,000. He was also due an annual bonus worth 144% of his salary by the end of the year, half of which – £360,000 – has been paid in cash but half of which is paid in shares.
However, Deliveroo’s board trimmed back the share bonuses by calculating the number of shares he should receive based on the 390p price at which the delivery company launched on the stock market rather than the 234p price at the time the bonus was awarded, effectively reducing the payout by 40%.
Miller is also lined up for long term awards equivalent to up to 600% of his salary, but again the shares set aside, for the award which will vest based on performance over the next few years, have been cut by 40%.
