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Bloomberg
As layoffs at technology and finance firms in the US have piled up, their executives have talked at length about the need to cut costs in a challenging economic environment. At some of the biggest firms, the same austerity measures are also being applied in the C-suite.
David Solomon, the chief executive officer of Goldman Sachs Group Inc., was the latest to take a hit: His 2022 compensation was cut by about 30% to $25 million, the bank said. Solomon joins Morgan Stanley CEO James Gorman among bank bosses accepting a pay cut for his work. Alphabet Inc.’s compensation details haven’t yet been released, but CEO Sundar Pichai has said that senior executives will get significantly lower bonuses this year.
Each of the CEOs has recently announced thousands of job cuts. Goldman Sachs is cutting 3,200 roles in one of its biggest rounds of layoffs ever, while Morgan Stanley will cut 1,600 people. Alphabet is cutting about 12,000 jobs — 6% of its total workforce.
Falling share prices alone are already cutting compensation for many CEOs if their pay package is heavily contingent on the company’s stock performance, even without a symbolic gesture. Apple’s Cook was among the highest paid executives in 2021, drawing a multi-million dollar salary in addition to stock.
Compensation details haven’t been announced for Bank of America Corp. CEO Brian Moynihan, who added headcount in the fourth quarter, or Citigroup Inc. CEO Jane Fraser, who made dozens of cuts last year to the investment banking unit. CEO Jamie Dimon’s pay at JPMorgan Chase & Co. was kept unchanged at $34.5 million as the bank added headcount.
Though top CEOs’ pay is now upwards of 300 times that of the average employee, only a quarter of employees think the disparity is unfair, according to a Gartner survey conducted in mid-2022.