This week, Fast Company shared a piece on Steve Ells and Monty Moran, the co-CEOs over at Chipotle. While the crux of the feature is about how the company is bouncing back from the $26.4 million quarterly loss after that massive E. coli outbreak that including the temporary closing of 43 stores, there's one particular nugget of information that has us bugging out.
"Ells and Moran together took home $57 million in compensation in 2014, more than the total pay packages of the CEOs of Apple, McDonald’s, Nike, and Goldman Sachs combined."
Wait, what? While Chipotle is no slouch, with reportedly 2,010 locations around the country, that fact is nuts. Apple probably made the laptop or cellphone you're reading these words on; Nike probably made some of your apparel or the kicks on your feet. You or your homey probably got some lunch at McDonald's, and we imagine most of you hate on Goldman Sachs for one reason or another. These are major players in the game of consumerism, but somehow Chipotle CEOs are the ones taking stacks home.
Fast Company did the math and said it'd take a Chipotle crew member more than 1,500 years to earn one of the CEO's 2014 pay. Unprompted, Moran was quoted as justifying his pay, saying, "The only reason I deserve, or anyone [at Chipotle] can deserve, to make more than a GM is if they have the effect of empowering or helping loads of GMs get better. That’s the only way."
Keep in mind, this was back in 2014; CNN reported back in March that their compensation was cut in half, with Ells taking home $13.8 million while Moran pocketed $13.5 million. They also didn't get any stock options, which is huge considering that they EACH got $23.7 million in options the prior year. That E. coli really messed their bank accounts up.
All of this is something to think about when you're wondering why they still charge you for guacamole.
