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United CEO Scott Kirby Makes 226 Years of Wages in a Single Year

September 19, 2023

According to an April report by a leading Investment Adviser firm, United CEO Scott Kirby has a net worth of at least $44.1 million and collects an annual salary of $16,779,500 as Chief Executive Officer and President of United Airlines at United Airlines Inc. 

By comparison, a ramp or gate agent at the airline at the top of the payscale working full-time would need to work 226 years to make the same amount of money as the CEO of their company. 

Kirby’s yearly salary is only $1 million, meaning most of his income comes from other sources. It is common for executives at larger companies to collect modest-sized wages. In 2020, Jeff Bezos, CEO of Amazon and one of the world’s wealthiest men, took in a yearly take of only $81,840. Yet, his actual income has been estimated to be as high as $64 Billion. 

In 2022, there was a change in how CEO compensation was reported for major public companies. The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) implemented a new rule requiring these companies to disclose “compensation actually paid” to top executives rather than just the total compensation awarded. This newly reported figure clarifies how much the CEO received in cash and stock last year versus pay that is still pending or tied to performance goals. This new SEC rule aims to give investors a clearer picture of how much money CEOs take home each year.

The new reporting requirements give investors a better view of executive pay, but executives are still trying to mask their monstrous net worth and incomes. 

Using the old way of reporting executive pay, United CEO Kirby’s total compensation for last year was said to be $9.8 million. This included $8.7 million in stock awards, a $1 million base salary, and a small amount of other pay.

But with the new SEC reporting method, his “actual compensation” was a bit higher at $10.06 million for last year. Kirby is the only airline executive whose income increased using the new reporting methods.

Kirby’s wealth is not typical for airline CEOs. Average pay for the top 14 U.S.-based carriers is “only” $4.05 million.

Kirby’s haul was about $2.4 million more than the second-highest-paid airline executive, Delta Air Lines’ Ed Bastian, who brought home $7.61 million using the new reporting standards. The CEO with the most ethical income reported is Peter Ingram of Hawaiian Airlines, who earned $3 million.

Much of Kirby’s wealth comes from stock trades. On average, Kirby trades about 32,500 United Airlines stock units every couple of months. He has been actively trading the airline’s stock since 2013. 

On February 2023, he exercised 124,846 UAL stock worth $6,762,908 on 28 February 2023. 

As of late February 2023, Kirby still owns at least 467,000 units of United Airlines stock, and he has maintained a significant ownership stake in the company for many years. 

His net income largely depends on how well UAL stock is valued. Companies can artificially create spikes in stock value by using schemes such as stock buybacks, which reduce the number of available shares, driving up the price of the remaining stocks. 

United is the 4th-largest airline by market share. However, at 15%, it is only a few points behind American, the largest airline by market share at 17.5%.

Kirby’s tenure at United began in 2016 and has been riddled with controversies. In July of 2023, he opted to take a private jet to his vacation destination after his United flight was canceled. In June, he tried to place blame for weather-related mass cancellations that impacted the travel plans of 150,000 United passengers. Pointing to staffing issues at the agency, Kirby said in an interview with CNBC, “the biggest issue with us is Air Traffic Control. Every day, we wake up with Air Traffic Control delays.”

However, travelers were quick to blame short staffing at United, not the FAA. Passengers flooded social media with posts showing hours-long waits at customer service, which is staffed by United and not the FAA. Many complained that the airline did not have enough employees at the airport to help stranded passengers. 

The Secretary of Transportation, Pete Buttigieg fired back at Kirby, saying, “Look, United Airlines has some internal issues they need to work through. They’ve really been struggling this week, even relative to other US airlines.” He went on to defend his agency, saying, “I want to be very clear, air traffic control issues are not the number one issue causing cancellations and delays. They’re not even the number two issue. All the data, including industry’s own data is very clear on that.”

The Air Line Pilots Association (ALPA) agreed. Captain Garth Thompson issued a June 28 statement, saying, “United’s travel disruptions this week stem from one source; company senior management’s inadequate planning and insufficient investment in the airline infrastructure.”

“Our pilots agree with our passengers that this lack of foresight and disregard of warning signs is unacceptable. It’s time for United leadership to change their thinking and invest in its labor, staff support, and facilities with updated contracts instead of ensuring our CEO has the highest salary,” he continued.

Most recently, Kirby claimed that the airline industry is overstaffed by 10% despite paying thousands in incentives to attract new workers to major hubs such as Denver. His comments also came amidst a well-documented shortage of qualified pilots. The idea that airlines are overstaffed was quickly rebuked by the Association of Flight Attendants-CWA (AFA), who informed Kirby, “Not in the severely understaffed UA inflight crew scheduling department — which exacerbates delays and cancellations for passengers and crew.” 

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