Out of the generosity of their hearts, top management at Starbucks (NASDAQ:SBUX) will take no raises next year. According to Reuters, "U.S. workers at the vice president level and higher will not receive salary increases for fiscal 2009."
Since Starbucks shares have moved from nearly $40 to under $16 in less than two years, the action seems fair enough. Given the company's performance, it actually looks like a sacrifice that is much too modest, especially for CEO and founder Howard Schultz.
A look at the Starbucks proxy shows that Schultz owns over 32 million shares. Last year, he got a salary of almost $1.2 million and total compensation of over $10.6 million. Given that Schultz was the chairman while Starbucks was headed down the tubes, that is a lot of money.
Schultz, a very rich man with poor shareholders, should be working for $1.
Douglas A. McIntyre is an editor at 247wallst.com.
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
8-28-2008 @ 4:38PM
Terry said...
Once again, the shareholders get left holding a smaller and smaller peice of the pie. If Mr Schultz took home 11.8 million dollars of salary and perks last year while the stock continued to tank, he is being grossly overpaid. Why not return most of that salary and that of other top execs who are responsible for the loss of jobs and closing of stores.
8-28-2008 @ 6:04PM
Wily said...
How about getting payed for performance? If stocks go down, salary is adjusted down accordingly.