By: Jeff Nugent
After a brutal year for the stock market, executives at financial firms are having conversations regarding cutting costs in this harsh economic state. Many top companies’ CEOs are having to take drastic pay cuts.
The Chief Executive Officer of Goldman Sachs Group, David Solomon was the most recent to take this strike. He is taking a pay cut of approximately 30% to $25 million, which is much lower than his 2021 compensation of $35 million. Goldman Sachs's full-year earnings dropped by nearly 48%, resulting in a decrease of $11.3 billion compared to 2021. Such a significant drop in earnings will force companies to lay off employees. Goldman Sachs was forced to cut back its workforce and lay off 4,000 workers, one of their biggest rounds of layoffs ever.
Tech giant Apple Inc has avoided many layoffs but has announced this month that its CEO, Tim Cook will take a pay cut of 40% to $49 million for 2023. Another big tech company, Amazon Inc will have to cut 18,000 jobs globally due to shares being down by nearly 50%. Amazon CEO, Andy Jassy will earn $175,000 per year in base salary, with most of his compensation being awarded in stocks. Ultimately, his compensation will drastically decrease after a rough year for Amazon shareholders.
Drastic pay cuts hurt not only the chief executive officer of these companies but also the average employee, as thousands are being laid off across the globe.