2021年经济学人 疫情重创之下的美国CEO薪资飙升,那你呢?(1)（在线收听）

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Pay and the pandemic

薪酬与疫情

For some American CEOs, it was as if covid-19 did not happen

从部分美国首席执行官的薪酬来看，新冠疫情就像是没发生过一样。

Last year was a terrible one for travel of any sort. You would not know it from the way some American chief executives trousered pay. Annual filings show that Larry Culp, boss of GE, whose jet-engine business stalled as aviation nosedived, earned $73m, almost triple his total pay in 2019. Christopher Nassetta, CEO of Hilton, a hotel chain, enjoyed a 161% pay boost, receiving $55.9m. Norwegian Cruise Line, which described 2020 as the hardest year in its history, more than doubled the compensation of its CEO, Frank Del Rio, to $36.4m. All three were among the corporate titans who grandly took cuts in their basic pay and/or bonuses during the pandemic. They pocketed far more than they gave up.

不管以任何形式旅行，去年都是很糟糕的一年。但你却无法从美国部分首席执行官的薪酬上了解到去年的糟糕。年报显示，通用电气的喷气发动机业务因航空业的一落千丈而陷入停滞，但首席执行官拉里·卡普的年薪为7300万美元，几乎是2019年总薪酬的三倍。连锁酒店希尔顿的首席执行官克里斯托弗·纳塞塔的薪酬涨了161%，共赚有5590万美元。挪威邮轮公司称2020年是其史上最艰难的一年，但其首席执行官弗兰克·德尔里奥的薪酬却提高了一倍多，高达3640万美元。在疫情期间，有很多企业巨头大肆削减了基本工资和/或奖金，这三位也不例外。但他们收入囊中的钱可比他们放弃的要多得多。

They did so thanks to a nifty conjuring trick performed in boardrooms across America last year. In effect, many boards air-brushed away the impact of covid-19 on performance-based pay either by removing a quarter or two of bad numbers in order to meet bonus targets, changing the metrics mid-course, or—as with Messrs Culp, Nassetta and Del Rio—by issuing new share grants after the pandemic gutted the previous ones. (Mr Culp and Mr Del Rio also got contract extensions.)

他们去年的涨薪还要得益于美国各地董事会上上演的巧妙把戏。事实上，许多董事会为消除新冠对绩效工资的影响，要么抹掉一两个的季度的难堪数据以达到奖金目标，要么中途改变指标，要么像是卡普、纳塞塔和德尔里奥一样在疫情之后发行新股来弥补之前的损失。(卡普和德尔里奥也因此获得了合同延期。）