Bob Iger Comments on “Don’t Say Gay” Bill and Disney’s Wage Gap

Disney has been involved in a recent controversy over Florida’s “Don’t Say Gay” bill, which has now been signed into law. Many people criticized the Walt Disney Company — and CEO Bob Chapek in particular — over their early silence about the bill.

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Chapek didn’t publicly denounce the bill until it had already passed in the Florida Senate and House of Representatives. Later, he issued an apology for the delayed action, stating that Disney was “opposed to the bill from the outset” and was lobbying privately against the legislation rather than taking a public position. Now, former Disney CEO Bob Iger has weighed in on the issue.

Chris Wallace from CNN+ interviewed Bob Iger and asked him about the recent “Don’t Say Gay” legislation controversy. Iger had tweeted his opinion on the bill before Disney publicly responded to it. He stated that “a lot of these issues are not necessarily political. It’s about right and wrong.” Iger went on to say that the bill “seemed potentially harmful to kids,” which is part of why he felt the issue needed to be addressed publicly, according to Deadline.

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Current CEO Bob Chapek was “reluctant to take a public side” concerning the “Don’t Say Gay” legislation at first. Chapek said that public statements from large corporations are “weaponized by one side or the other to further divide and inflame.” When he was criticized by guests and employees for the company’s silence, he apologized and went on to openly oppose the bill. Now, Chapek says that the company’s goal “is for this law to be repealed by the legislature or struck down in the courts.”

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In the interview, Iger said that he faced this dilemma often as the Disney CEO when deciding whether to go public on “issues like climate change and immigration.” He said, “The filter that I used to determine whether we should or should not weigh in considered a few factors. What would its impact have on our employees, on our shareholders and our customers? And if any one of those three constituencies had a deep interest in or would be affected by whatever was the matter at hand, then it was something I thought we should consider weighing in on” (Deadline).

Bob Iger | ©Apple TV+

When asked whether it affected his decision that some guests could be upset by the public statements and thus choose to not visit Disney theme parks, Iger said, “We never really saw much evidence of that.” He continued, “I just think you have to do what is right and not worry about the potential backlash to it.”

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Wallace went on to ask Iger about a recent documentary that was co-directed by Abigail Disney, which criticizes the Walt Disney Company for “the wide disparity in pay between hourly theme park workers and Iger’s CEO compensation.” When asked if he has any misgivings about the salary disparity, Iger said, “I’ve never been defensive about what I made.” He claimed that his salary was typical of the compensation for CEOs of large media companies.

Iger did acknowledge that his one regret was not increasing the starting hourly wage from $10 to $15 early on. He said, “We were being pushed to go to 15. There was some hesitation in that regard because of the cost associated with it. We should have done that right away.”