How much did LEGO’s CEO and Board of Directors earn in 2020?

The LEGO Group’s annual financial report has revealed that its CEO and Board of Directors received a huge 40% pay increase in 2020.

In 2019, remuneration awarded to CEO Niels B. Christiansen and the Board of Directors collectively totalled 31 million DKK (around £3.57 million), representing a 22.5% drop on 2018. Last year, however, that number increased by almost 40% – or 20 million DKK (£2.3 million) – to 51 million DKK (£5.87 million).

That’s reflective of the company’s wider financial performance in 2020, which saw sales skyrocket by 21%, and net profit soar by 19%. The percentage increase of the board’s salaries far outweighs those figures, of course, but that boost in profits equals 1.6 billion DKK (£184 million) in real terms. By comparison, £2.3 million perhaps isn’t too egregious – at least compared to 2019.

We don’t know the exact breakdown for the entire Board of Directors and CEO, as the only figure provided in the annual report applies to them as a collective, in line with the Danish Financial Statements Act.

lego

We do know, however, that the company paid out an eye-watering 128 million DKK (£14.7 million) to its Executive Leadership Team, which consisted of 10 people by the end of the year (and nine on average over the course of the year).

That figure accounts for salaries, pensions, short-term incentive plans (based on annual performance), long-term incentive plans (based on – you guessed it – long-term goals), and one-off payments including severance packages.

Compared to the CEO and Board of Directors, though, it’s only a minor increase on the year previous: in 2019, the company’s execs received 124 million DKK (£14.3 million). Either way, that’s still a huge chunk of change, directly facilitated by how much LEGO we’ve all been buying for the past year.

Click here for our breakdown of the LEGO Group’s profits and expenditure in 2020, or dive into the full annual report here.

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Author Profile

Chris Wharfe
I like to think of myself as a journalist first, LEGO fan second, but we all know that’s not really the case. Journalism does run through my veins, though, like some kind of weird literary blood – the sort that will no doubt one day lead to a stress-induced heart malfunction. It’s like smoking, only worse. Thankfully, I get to write about LEGO until then.

Chris Wharfe

I like to think of myself as a journalist first, LEGO fan second, but we all know that’s not really the case. Journalism does run through my veins, though, like some kind of weird literary blood – the sort that will no doubt one day lead to a stress-induced heart malfunction. It’s like smoking, only worse. Thankfully, I get to write about LEGO until then.

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