Usage was down, revenue went way way up, and executive salaries reflected that. As revenue has dropped, I doubt executive salaries have stayed at the same level.

It's insane how much flak they get for the CEO making a million dollars more after signing a deal that got them hundreds of millions more dollars a year.

> It's insane how much flak they get for the CEO making a million dollars more after signing a deal that got them hundreds of millions more dollars a year.

I think the derision comes from the fact that this is theoretically a non-profit org.

I'm a senior engineering manager at Mozilla. Are you saying that because Mozilla is a non-profit I should just accept to take a salary that is mediocre or below industry standard?

What if we apply that to engineering too? Marketing, operations, SREs ..

How do you think that would work out for Mozilla? Do you think we would have any impact if the place was run like that? Do you think we would have much talent on board?

In the interest of clarity and humility, I carry the baggage of having a very large anti-executive/administration/overhead bias.

I was trying to speak for general sentiment before, which was dumb of me.

Let me attempt to clarify my personal thinking: if for example there was a Patreon where I could give money to Mozilla engineering salaries directly, I would proudly pay $10/month. I would be willing to wager that many others would as well.

If orgs want good feels and a write off, sure 501c Mozilla donations, but let’s go beyond all that.

How about a Mozilla Security Patreon?

How about a Mozilla Rust Pateron?

My point is that there is so much good will and money, just on HN, for Mozilla engineering... can we come up with ways to fund engineering directly?

I realize there needs to be a CEO, etc, but there should also be a funding structure to pay you and your peers more, directly.

Edit: I am just using Patreon as an example of direct creator funding, other mechanisms may be more applicable.

If the board had paid the same amount and gotten half the return from a service or consultant, they would be praised for it. But an employee! Good forbid!

The executives are employees of the Mozilla Corporation, not the nonprofit.

> It's insane how much flak they get for the CEO making a million dollars more after signing a deal that got them hundreds of millions more dollars a year.

What are you talking about? Hundreds of millions more per year? Their revenue [1] grew by 40m (520m to 562m) during the year they doubled their top exec salary. It fell by 90m the next year, earning them a loss for the first time.

[1] https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mozilla_Foundation#Finanzierun... German Wikipedia has a nice table.

The deal was made in 2015, and I assume that the executives do not negotiate their salary every year.

Looking at the financials, it's pretty obvious that there was no huge deal that brought in additional hundreds of millions, not even once, and definitely not every year.

I should have said over a hundred million more a year or hundreds of millions more. It was my mistake to say both as the deal only increased revenue by $140 million over predeal revenue in the best year.

Thank you.

I have often thought that leading a shining beacon like Mozilla should and would be done by a previously successful executive who doesn't need the money and would like a challenge. Compensation would be $1/year, everlasting respect, and a true legacy to leave behind. But that's just my vision of panacea I suppose.

I respect Mitchell Baker's history at Mozilla but is it time for a change?

reference: https://www.mozilla.org/en-US/about/leadership/

edit: changed phrasing and tone

She's only been CEO for roughly a year now, and your hope that someone would do that work for free is unrealistic.

Yeah.. > that's just my vision of panacea I suppose.

Sorry, it does seem far harsher than I intended it, I'll change it. People often have extremely idealistic views of Mozilla that puts then in a position where they can do no right, and I'll end up debating that idealism while ignoring what was said.

No worries. I understand that his is complex topic and I am coming to it with little knowledge.

The reason I thought she had been CEO for years is that I saw in the official bio that she was a co-founder and CEO. I didn't realize the timeline. I should probably learn a lot more prior to making statements like I had previously about change.

I also do have the baggage of an anti-administrative bloat bias/agenda which I am may be applying here inappropriately.

I was just really disapointed with some of the teams that were removed like Security. I know that money has to come from somewhere and seeing exec compensation go up at the same time was a hard pill to swallow.

>. I know that money has to come from somewhere and seeing exec compensation go up at the same time was a hard pill to swallow.

The last year we have executive salaries from is 2018, while those cuts were in 2020. I suspect executive compensation also fell sharply, I know the number of executives is lower.

I also hope that they wear a black costume and fight crime at night.

But all we get are police and skilled people who want to be paid what they're worth.