Hostess CEO cuts everyone's pay but his
Gregory Rayburn argues that because he isn't on the Hostess payroll, he should still get his full $125,000 a month.
The CEO of Hostess Brands is getting widely criticized for taking his full salary while cutting everyone else's pay by 8%.Gregory Rayburn will still get his $125,000 a month, or $1.5 million a year, the company told The Huffington Post. His logic is that because he isn't on the Hostess payroll, he doesn't have to take part in the company-wide pay cut.
Rayburn looks at himself as temporary, telling The New York Post he's more like outside help and therefore entitled to his full salary. He said he will leave Hostess when he's no longer needed, the Post reports.
Rayburn joined Hostess in February as chief restructuring officer, and one month later was named president and CEO. He's also on the board of directors.
To be fair, Rayburn is taking some measures to rein in his pay. He was eligible to get a bonus of between $375,000 and $1.125 million, but decided to give up the money, The Huffington Post reports. And Rayburn and three other top executives are taking $1 for the rest of the year in pay, but their full salaries will be reinstated in January.
That's small comfort to the rank-and-file employees who watched a number of Hostess executives get sweet pay raises and bonuses as the company barreled into bankruptcy. The company wants 19 top managers to stay with Hostess as it moves into the liquidation phase, and got approval from a bankruptcy judge to award up to $1.75 million in retainment bonuses.
The execs only get those bonuses if they perform specific tasks related to easing the operational wind-down, a company spokesman told The Los Angeles Times. Rayburn won't be getting a bonus.
At least 15,000 Hostess employees are losing their jobs in bankruptcy, but Hostess wants to keep about 3,200 to help wind down operations.
Hostess cracked under nearly $1 billion in debt, and blame for its demise can be spread far and wide. Private-equity firms funding the company couldn't get it off the ground. When consumers lost interest in carbs and sugar, the biggest innovation Hostess could come up with was banana-filling Twinkies. Although union members agreed to steep concessions over the years, it still failed to adjust to new realities. The old CEO, Brian Driscoll, suddenly bailed in March without explanation, Fortune reports.
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Folks, this is bad but it's NOTHING compared to the abject greed and hubris diplayed by the Wall Street Bankers and Investment CEO's who took BILLIONS in salaries, bonuses and commissions KNOWING that they and their firms were driving the World monetary system into collapse. They were deemed 'too big to fail' and they were bailed out--first by George Bush and susequently by Barack Obama--after agreeing to sit down at the table and hammer-out resolutions that would keep this from happening again. So far, they have mostly given the Obama admin the finger, refused to bargain or take pay cuts and have gone back to the same old stuff (have you watched Investment and Auto Finanacin commercials on TV lately?) that got us here in the first place.
And who is supposed to qualify the greedy, self-serving behaviour? The US Senate? Hahahahahahahaha......
correct! the CEO thing is out of hand. The CEO's and shareholders are doing more damage than good to companies. Draining profits by giving themselves raises and cutting cost by laying people off and raising health benefits so they pay less. I'm sure you have seen it. Companies laying people off and making others pick the slack. If the fiscal cliff hits, we will all be in trouble with these CEO's.
This does not help the economy. Too much is put on the stock market and how a company does day-to-day. I think this is another issue of how our investments are slowly being bleed by investment companies.
I just love seing how a company stock goes up 10% one day and then down 5% the next. Everybody is in a hurry to make money and willing to screw with the system to do it.
from the comments here I can see that Obamas push to divide this country is well underway. Where was the outrage when Obama had someone paid $$ to oversee the BP oil mess? or the pay out of TARP or the person who oversaw the money for 9/11? they all got millions. Why no outrage? You all point the finger at the CEO - well what about the Board of trustees who hire them and give them these pay packages? Many of them sit on multipule boards, they make millions ( Michelle Obama was a multipul at one time) If you don't work for them and you don't own apart in the company ( don't be embarressed like the Prez was, check and see where your money lands in those mutual funds...) - what is your complaint? If you do own a part, start writing to them , call them and ask what are they doing with your money. I wonder why, we tell our children that they can grow up and become anything they want, the world is your oyster - yet today we have to tell them, don't make alot of money, that's bad. Well unless your some kind of entertainer then you should be able to make alot of money and hide it in production companies....
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