T-Mobile CEO revealed to be among top-paid execs moments after company confirms price hike

Today, T-Mobile confirmed that it was raising prices on some older plans, something it hadn’t done in nearly a decade. The company told employees that the step was necessary to keep up with rising inflation and costs. And with prices of everything increasing, you may even be inclined to thingk that T-Mobile did nothing wrong. After all, its biggest rivals AT&T and Verizon have also been doing the same. But there’s one difference between those companies and T-Mobile: their CEOs are not among the top twenty highest-paid execs in the US.The Wall Street Journal today revealed the names of the CEOs who made the most money in 2023. T-Mobile‘s Mike Sievert was 16th on the list, with a total pay of $37.49 million.

And while how much a company pays its CEO can be seen as an internal matter, it’s hard not to view it unfavourably when you look at all the unpopular steps T-Mobile has taken in the past few months, including laying off employees, potentially being the reason higher prices for all US consumers, and making it harder for people to sign up for older, cheaper plans.

According to Axios, out of Sievert’s total pay of around $37 million, $8.1 million was cash compensation, which is a modest 521 times more than the company’s median salary of $72,000.

And while you may think that Sivert deserves the pay for playing a part in making T-Mobile one of the best 5G providers, what stings is that, especially if you are an employee, the company doesn’t shy away from throwing employees under the bus to customers whenever it takes harsh decisions.

For instance, the company seems to be aware that it will be heavily criticized by customers for today’s price rise and has increased staffing in stores to deal with customers and force them to not leave the company.