Business is Suffering But SeaWorld CEO Gets a Raise!

Of all the bizarre reports we see come out of SeaWorld, this one pretty much takes the cake. The CEO of SeaWorld has recently received a significant pay increase, despite the fact that his business is losing attendance and therefore revenue. So how do you figure this one?

Turns out, in a side-by-side comparison performed by an outside consulting firm, they determined that the base salary of the SeaWorld CEO is much lower than those of other public companies specializing in entertainment, restaurants, and hospitality. Given this, the board of SeaWorld shareholders approved the proposed increase of their CEO’s salary…and the rest is history.

The real question though, is what have we learned from this? If other businesses in your sector are doing well, then you should be doing well too? Even if there are zero grounds for such a thing…

Bottom line: SeaWorld animals are suffering and business is suffering…but this pay bump adds an extra incentive for the SeaWorld CEO to care even less about the ethics of this network of establishments and carry on business as usual. That is unless SeaWorld’s CEO takes this extra cash and puts it into an open sea pen program or maybe towards starting a system of rehabilitation and release…just saying.

Image source: Matayana/Wikimedia Commons