It was announced last week that Disney would be implementing company-wide pay cuts for executives. The decision was made in order to pay lower-level employees and keep the business afloat in the midst of the COVID-19 coronavirus.
The executives hit by these cuts include Vice Presidents, Senior Vice Presidents, Executive Vice Presidents, and Disney CEO Bob Iger, who has agreed to give up his entire salary during the pandemic. Reports indicate that the high-level employees were given only two days to sign the paper work while being made to feel as though they might lose their jobs if they declined to do so – a decision that has caused some alleged resentment and frustration, especially in the face of an indefinite timeline.
Lower-level employees are dealing with even more concerning news as Disney begins furloughing thousands of workers this week – a stark contrast from a 20-30% pay cut.
Disney is only one of hundreds of thousands of companies being affected by the coronavirus outbreak, of course. Many analysts have predicted that the company is seeing losses of millions of dollars per day and could suffer a total of well over a $500 million loss from the closure of their theme parks alone. The parks, originally scheduled to reopen at the beginning of April, are now remaining closed indefinitely as the virus continues its warpath across the globe.
Additionally, theaters everywhere have closed their doors to the public, resulting in Disney losing a significant amount of revenue during peak movie season. Marvel’s Black Widow just got a new release date far later in the year, but other upcoming Disney films like The New Mutants and Antlers were removed from the release schedule and may not even see a release in 2020 as the company continues an uphill battle against the ongoing pandemic.
