Hewlett Packard isn’t doing so well like ever other consumer electronic company. Profit and sales are down, blah, blah, blah. You know the drill. Anyway, instead of laying off the 20,000 people like the financials indicate, the company is issuing company wide pay cuts starting at the top.
CEO Mark Hurd is giving himself a modest 20 percent pay cut (he earned $42.5 million in total compensation last year, btw) and the pay cuts decrease from there. The Executive Council’s pay checks will be 15 percent lighter soon, other executive’s 10 percent less, 5 percent for exempt employees, and 2.5 for non-exempt drones.
Who knows if this strategy will fix or even solve HP’s money from going down the drain but at least folks still have a job. Getting a pay cut is hella lot better than standing in the soup line. Here’s an idea though, cut the CEO’s total compensation by 80% and give everyone a raise.