About Bonus Watch

Every bonus balances somewhere.

Bonus Watch is a public register of executive pay awarded against the cost borne by everyone else. Each entry records two things: what was credited to the executive, and what was debited from the company, its staff, its customers or its shareholders in the same period.

What gets recorded

An entry needs a disclosed figure and a documented offsetting cost — job cuts, a share price collapse, a regulatory finding, a shareholder revolt, a rescue funded from somewhere else. Large pay on its own is not the story. The juxtaposition is.

The register currently holds 13 entries across 5 countries, totalling US$1.88b converted to US dollars at approximate rates.

Where the figures come from

Every figure is drawn from a company's own disclosures — annual reports, remuneration reports, proxy statements, exchange announcements — or from named reporting of them. Executive pay is public information precisely so it can be scrutinised. Each entry links its sources; if a figure cannot be traced to one, it does not go on the register.

Target pay and realised pay are different numbers. Where a package is an award that may never fully vest, the entry says so and states the realisable figure alongside it. Rounding a target up into money-in-pocket is the most common error in coverage of executive pay, and this register tries not to make it.

Fact and opinion

The two ledger columns carry facts. The footnote beneath each entry is comment — ours, clearly marked, and not to be read as an allegation of fact. Where a company or executive has responded publicly, the response is recorded in the entry.

Corrections

Corrections are welcome and are made quickly. If a figure here is wrong, out of date, or missing context that changes its meaning, write to hello@bonus.watch with the source and it will be fixed. Entries are version-controlled, so every change to the register is dated and recoverable.

Who runs it

Bonus Watch is an independent project, published pseudonymously and run by one person in their own time. It is not affiliated with any company, union, political party, campaign or investor, and it accepts no payment from anyone with an interest in what it records.

How it is paid for

It costs less to run each year than the average entry earns in a minute. There is no advertising and no sponsored content. If readers choose to support it, that support is acknowledged and never buys influence over what is recorded or how.

Reuse

Journalists, researchers and campaigners are welcome to use the figures with attribution and a link. The underlying data is available on request and will be published as a downloadable dataset.