CEO Paywatch: Ceredian CEO Ossip surpasses $100M threshold in 2020

David Ossip

Ceridian HCM Holdings Inc.

Chairman, CEO

Total compensation: $108,214,983 for the year ended Dec. 31

Salary: $700,000

Bonus: $560,000

Non-equity incentive pay: $0

Other compensation: $49,022

Exercised stock options: $100,935,961

Value realized on vesting shares: $5,970,000

New stock options: 1,821,734

CEO Pay ratio: 137 to 1

Median employee pay: $76,645

Total 2020 shareholder return: 57%

Note: Ossip's total realized compensation was $108.2 million in 2020, up from $43.9 million the year before.

About $100.9 million of it came because he exercised more than 1.5 million stock options that had been issued in previous years. The value of the options increased in 2020 when Ceridian HCM's stock price grew by 57%, raising the company's market capitalization by almost $6 billion.

Ossip's total also included $5.97 million from restricted stock that vested during 2020.

The Bloomington-based company sells human capital management software. In 2020, overall revenue was $842.5 million, up 2.2%. Revenue of its signature Dayforce software increased more than 18%.

During the year the company failed to meet its short-term incentive targets for revenue and adjusted EBITDA margin so executives received $0 in the non-equity (cash) incentive pay category.

Instead the board of directors, citing "the unprecedented and unforeseeable impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the general economy" and otherwise solid performance, elected to award a discretionary cash bonus to all eligible employees of 70% of the target. That included a $560,000 bonus to Ossip.

During the year, Ossip exercised more than 1.5 million options with strike prices that ranged between $16.80 and $17.88 per share and then sold at prices that ranged between $72.18 and $94.90 per share.

Ossip did not get a salary increase in 2020, but the board of directors approved a $100,000 raise in annual salary for 2021.

Patrick Kennedy