Rivian Automotive Inc‘s (NASDAQ:RIVN) board of directors has approved a major pay raise for CEO RJ Scaringe.

What Happened: The board approved a hike in the CEO’s annual base salary to a million dollars on Aug. 25, effective immediately, the company said in an SEC filing on Tuesday. The new salary marks an over 50% jump from his previous base pay of $650,000.

Further, the CEO has also been granted stock awards of approximately $15 million under the company’s 2021 Incentive Award Plan. This includes both restricted stock units and stock options, structured to vest over a 4-year period subject to Scaringe’s continued service.

Starting January 1, the CEO will also see an increase in his target annual incentive bonus opportunity from 50% to 100% of his annual base salary.

Why It Matters: The increase in salary comes as Rivian is seeking to scale production to address its really long backlog and the biggest customer complaint of wait time associated with getting a Rivian.

During the second quarter, Rivian produced more R1S models as compared to R1T. The R1S is priced higher than the R1T and is also more profitable. The pattern will continue for the next one or two quarters, the CEO informed during the company’s second-quarter earnings call last month.

Talking about the backlog at hand, Scaringe had said that the company is ‘very confident' in its continued backlog which it sees expanding well into 2024. "We're quite bullish on the continued strong demand we have for our products," he said.

For 2023, the company expects to produce 52,000 total units.

Photo via Richard Truesdell on Wikimedia

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