While we are confident that Delta will recover quickly once the country comes through the pandemic, the payment of special bonuses to management while the airline is still burning cash is premature and inappropriate.
Those businesses that were severely harmed by the pandemic may have no choice but to grant some degree of discretion to compensation committees making the final annual payout determinations—so that they can modulate pay-for-performance according to the specific circumstances they face.
Having realized more than a $110 million in compensation over the past four years, CEO Donald Slager has been well taken care of by Republic, even before the sweetened payoff, something which cannot be said for the thousands of Republic employees working on the frontline amid the pandemic.