UnitedHealth CEO's pay was $21.5 million in 2018

April 23, 2019 at 12:23AM
Wichmann's Minnetonka company extracted $17 billion in profits from the health care system last year simply by being the paperwork guys.
David Wichmann, chief executive of UnitedHealth Group (Pete Kotz — CNBC/The Minnesota Star Tribune)
David Wichmann United-Health Group

Chief executive

Total compensation: $21,466,890 for the year ended 2018

Salary: $1,300,000

Nonequity incentive pay: $5,390,600

Other compensation: $316,330

Value realized on vesting shares: $14,459,960

Options exercised: $0

New stock options: 65,418

Median employee pay: $57,412

CEO pay ratio: 316:1

Total 2018 shareholder return: 15%

Note: David Wichmann's first year as CEO brought an increase in salary, nonequity incentive pay and other compensation. But Wichmann's total compensation during the year of nearly $21.5 million was down considerably from 2017 when he cashed in stock options from previous years and saw total compensation of $83.2 million, according to the Star Tribune's method for calculating pay.

Wichmann became CEO in September 2017, when previous CEO Stephen Hemsley retired and became executive chairman at UnitedHealth Group. Hemsley's total pay for 2018 was $65.6 million, driven by exercised stock options and vested stock awards from previous years.

In 2018, Wichmann's pay as reported to regulators — which includes a projection for the future value of stock-based compensation granted during the year — came in at $18.1 million. That was about 316 times the median employee compensation of $57,412, the company said in a regulatory filing.

Christopher Snowbeck

FILE - This Oct. 16, 2012, file photo, shows a portion of the UnitedHealth Group Inc.'s campus in Minnetonka. (AP Photo/Jim Mone, File) ORG XMIT: MER13a79d8ca40b1923102742ac19dbb
FILE - This Oct. 16, 2012, file photo, shows a portion of the UnitedHealth Group Inc.'s campus in Minnetonka. (AP Photo/Jim Mone, File) ORG XMIT: MER13a79d8ca40b1923102742ac19dbb (The Minnesota Star Tribune)
Caption (The Minnesota Star Tribune)
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