A research firm recently conducted a study to analyze the effects of chief executive officers' decisions to give up most of their salary and bonus.
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Get Your Report Now!The Corporate Library looked at 41 CEOs who voluntarily served without a salary ($1 or less) or a cash bonus, finding that other forms of compensation and stock holdings meant that their forfeiture of salary and bonuses was in many cases purely symbolic. For example, 18 of the CEOs had a combined total of almost $6 billion in stock of the companies at which they are employed.
“The CEOs' shareholdings, as well as other forms of compensation, lead us to conclude that the voluntary forfeiture of salary and cash bonus is largely symbolic,” said Research Associate Greg Ruel, author of the study.