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Freeman [soylentnews.org] writes:

https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2020/03/att-ceo-pay-rose-to-32-million-in-2019-while-he-cut-20000-jobs/ [arstechnica.com]

AT&T CEO Randall Stephenson's total compensation was more than $32 million in 2019, giving him a 10 percent raise while he slashed tens of thousands of jobs and reduced spending on network upgrades. Stephenson's total compensation was $28.72 million in 2017, $29.12 million in 2018, and $32.03 million in 2019, an AT&T filing [investis.com] to the Securities and Exchange Commission said. His pay raise was driven by stock performance.
[...]
But Stephenson's 2019 compensation rose "after a headline-grabbing hedge fund battle ended up boosting the telecom and media giant’s share price," The Wall Street Journal reported today [wsj.com]. The 10 percent increase came "almost entirely on the strength of AT&T’s stock appreciation," as AT&T shares rose about 37 percent during 2019, the Journal article said.
[...]
AT&T has been trying to reduce its debt load, which was $163.1 billion total and $151.3 billion in long-term debt at the end of 2019. Stephenson might not get another pay increase this year given the turmoil in stock markets that has sent AT&T tumbling in recent days. Stephenson is nearing retirement, but AT&T has said he will remain in the top role through all of 2020.

20,000 jobs cut assuming $50,000 per year is $1 billion dollars saved per year. Even, if the CEO wanted to give all of his income to the workers. He would have saved about 3.2% or 640 jobs, this year. Sounds better, if you just blame him for the 20,000 job cuts, though.

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