Abigail Disney, the granddaughter of Disney co-founder Roy Disney, highlighted the company's pay inequality in an op-ed for The Washington Post.

In a series of now-viral tweets, the heiress called Disney CEO Bob Iger's $65.6 million salary “insane,” and part of a trend that "has had a corrosive effect on society.”

She called for the company to redistribute 50 percent of executives' bonuses to its lowest-paid employees.

Chances are you hadn't heard the name Abigail Disney until this month. The 59-year-old granddaughter of Roy O. Disney–co-founder of Disneyland and the Walt Disney Company–has kept a relatively low profile over the years, establishing a successful career as a documentary filmmaker while also working as an activist and philanthropist.

But over the past few weeks, she's made headlines for a revealing interview with New York magazine’s The Cut, as well as for a series of tweets in which she shone a spotlight on pay inequality at Disney. In her viral thread, she called Disney CEO Bob Iger’s $65.6 million salary “insane,” adding that this kind of vastly inflated pay has “had a corrosive effect on society.” While she hasn't disclosed her net worth, she told The Cut she's given away $70 million of her own money in the past three years.



This is why everyone's talking about the heiress.



She’s unafraid to keep it real about her family's wealth.

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In her interview with The Cut, Disney offered fascinating insight into what it’s like to grow up with more money than you will ever need, admitting that the corporate structure of the Disney business has never sat well with her. "I'm kind of a lefty, New York City, Manhattan, pointy-headed intellectual type," she said. "Those are the people who hate Disney and think it's the worst thing on Earth, and that's where I probably would be if I weren't actually related to it.”

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In the same interview, Abigail spoke candidly about the myth that rich people stay rich by being smart. “I could be a billionaire if I wanted to be a billionaire, and I’m not because I don’t want to be a billionaire,” she said. “That’s an insane amount of money. But it’s the easiest thing in the world to make money if you start with money. And then people give themselves credit for being that smart when they’re not.”

Though her recent comments have made waves, she has a long history of speaking her mind and refusing to toe the party line. Back in 2014, when Meryl Streep made a controversial speech calling Walt Disney—her granduncle—a bigot, a racist, and a sexist, she publicly agreed with her.

“I LOVED what Meryl Streep said,” she wrote on Facebook, according to The Hollywood Reporter. "A devil [Walt Disney] was not. Nor an angel. That's the point and if you read ALL her remarks you'll know that's exactly what she was getting at. She said exactly what I said about how in spite of it all, his vision was amazing and he brought joy to so many around the world. So I say Brava Meryl. I don't believe in bashing for bashing's sake but whenever we see a misplaced attempt at hagiography we need to speak our minds!"

She's pointing out the startling pay inequality at Disney.

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Abigail’s viral Twitter thread was preceded by her remarks at the Fast Company Impact Council last Thursday, where she spoke about how spending time with Disney employees changed her perspective. She said that many employees have had their benefits reduced and are struggling to make ends meet, while the company’s CEO Bob Iger has seen his salary increase to almost $66 million.

“I like Bob Iger,” she said. “Let me be very clear: I think he’s a good man." She moved on to say that after doing the math, he still would have made $10 million from his bonus had he given a 15 percent raise to Disneyland employees.

"There’s a point at which there’s just too much going around the top of the system into this class of people who, I’m sorry this is radical, have too much money. There is such a thing," she said.



She uses Twitter to share her ideas about the company.

Following her remarks at the Fast Company panel, she took to Twitter to clarify that she likes Iger as a person and that she did not speak for her family and has no involvement in business operations.

She went on to directly advocate for the rights of Disney employees who are struggling to get by on their existing salaries and benefits. “Anyone who contributes to the success of a profitable company and who works full-time to do so should not go hungry, should not ration insulin and should not have to sleep in a car," she wrote.

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To your success. Anyone who contributes to the success of a profitable company and who works full time to do so should not go hungry, should not ration insulin, and should not have to sleep in a car. — Abigail Disney (@abigaildisney) April 21, 2019

The company responded to her tweets in a statement given to the New York Times, saying they've implemented "a starting hourly wage of $15 at Disneyland that's double the federal minimum wage."

As a result, she penned a Washington Post op-ed, noting that Iger made $64 million in 2018, which is "1,424 times the median pay of a Disney worker.” Putting that gap in context, she continued, “in 1978, the average CEO made about 30 times a typical worker's salary. Since 1978, CEO pay has grown by 937 percent, while the pay of an average worker grew just 11.2 percent.”

In her piece, she urged Disney to address the "insane" pay gap between executives and hourly employees.

"Disney could well lead the way, if its leaders so chose, to a more decent, humane way of doing business,” she wrote. She suggested that if the company redistributed 50 percent of the bonuses given to its executives, “it would likely have twice as much as it would need to give [its lowest-paid employees] a $2,000 bonus."

In addition, she pointed out that executives who make billions of dollars will not be impacted by giving up their bonuses, whereas “for the people at the bottom, [a bonus] could mean a ticket out of poverty or debt. It could offer access to decent health care or an education for a child."

In a statement, a Disney spokesperson has noted that the company "has added more than 70,000 jobs during Mr. Iger’s tenure and has made historic investments to expand the earning potential and upward mobility of our workers, implementing a starting hourly wage of $15 at Disneyland that’s double the federal minimum wage, and committing up to $150 million to establish the nation’s most comprehensive workforce education initiative, which gives hourly employees the opportunity to obtain a high school, college or vocational degree completely free of charge, with a mix of online and on-campus courses that provide maximum flexibility so employees can achieve their career goals."

On the subject of Iger, the spokesperson added that his performance is "90% performance-based and he has delivered exceptional value for the company, its shareholders and employees," and said that Disney stock has risen significantly in value during Iger's tenure, which benefits "thousands of employees" who own stock.

She’s given away more than $70 million of her fortune.

In addition to being an outspoken activist, Abigail puts her money where her mouth is. “I’ve given away in the range of $70 million in the last 30 years,” she told The Cut. “I’m proud of that. I’m in a position to continue giving a lot of money away until the day I die.”



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