Meta approves bonuses of up to 200% of company executives' salaries

• Meta approved a plan that would allow executives to earn a bonus of up to 200% of their base pay.
• The move comes the same month the company aims to reduce its workforce by about 4,000 employees.
• Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg has said the company is targeting low-performing employees.

Meta approved a plan that could give company executives a bonus of up to 200% of their base salary, according to an SEC filing submitted on Thursday.

The company said in the filing that the bonus plan provides "variable cash incentives" designed to "motivate its executive officers to focus on company priorities and to reward them for company results and achievements."

The plan would allow for an increase the bonus package from 75% to 200% of its base pay, the company said.

The bonus boost would not apply to Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg. This is not an uncommon practice since chief executive compensation can be structured differently, focusing more on stock options.

A Meta spokesperson did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

In the filing, the company wrote that its Compensation Nominating and Governance Committee approved the change after analyzing market data for executive compensation. They determined the target total cash compensation for their executives "was at or below the 15th percentile of the target total cash compensation of executives holding similar positions at the peer group of companies that the Company benchmarks against for executive compensation purposes."

The approval comes amid another round of layoffs this month at Meta, targeting 5% of its workforce which would amount to nearly 4,000 employees.

Zuckerberg said the cuts were meant to target "low-performers" as company looks to streamline its operations in "an intense year" and invest heavily in artificial intelligence.

But some workers who were fired previously told Business Insider that they were caught off guard by the move because they had recently been given an "At or Above Expectations" ratings in Meta's midyear reviews in 2024.

"When I received the email I was surprised by it mostly because I have a very solid performance history and no indicators of the last six months of performance problems," one worker impacted by the layoffs said.

"Simply because someone had a history of meeting or exceeding expectations, does not mean they continue to consistently meet the bar," a Meta spokesperson previously told BI in an email. "Employees at Meta have always been held accountable to a goal-based culture of high performance."