CEO denied employees hikes and then pocketed a $100K 'retention fee.’ So they showed him who's boss

It’s no secret that many companies have struggled to justify wage freezes for employees while finding ways to boost executive pay. Something similar happened to a Reddit user under the username u/Nammmieee. In a post that has gained 3.8k upvotes so far, u/Nammmieee described how their CEO denied raises and bonuses, only to later hand himself a massive payout that drove half the workers to quit.

"At my old job, the CEO told us during an all-hands that raises and bonuses were off the table this year," they wrote, "Everyone was pissed, but what could we do? Times were tough, right?" The truth came out a month later when someone checked a board filing and noticed the CEO had approved a $100,000 "retention bonus" for himself. As u/Nammmieee put it, "Yes. The man literally rewarded himself for not quitting." Within six months, half the department had quit instead. "Guess the retention strategy didn’t quite work out the way he thought," the user added.

This kind of pay gap has been witnessed several times. A 2023 analysis from the Economic Policy Institute found that CEOs at S&P 500 companies made an average of 344 times more than the typical worker, and executive compensation often rose even in years when wages for employees were frozen. The study highlighted that stock-based awards, retention bonuses, and other "special grants" were some of the most common tools boards used to justify these paychecks. Researchers also noted that when CEOs walked away with more, it rarely led to higher retention or morale across the company; it often had the opposite effect, fueling resentment and turnover.

The post resonated strongly with readers, who had plenty to say about how familiar the story sounded. u/kubrick5150 commented, "At my place, management said they can't afford raises. But the top 5 gave themselves promotions (titles) that include huge pay raises. They can also afford to move to a new sky-rise office complex and spend hundreds of thousands on the finish out. But nothing for the employees. Unless you're in IT. Then you get a pay reduction for on-call hours. But at least we're still a family." u/backstabber81 shared, "53 people got laid off from my company, including myself, due to financial difficulties. On the same day, I saw the CEO drive away in a brand new Maserati. Oh well."

u/TravisBickle09 pointed out, "Executives have no clue. My mom was an executive assistant to the president of a company. Once, he bragged to her about the size of his bonus. She told him that it was more than she made in a year. He never did that again." u/sarahinNewEngland wrote, "I worked for a company that routinely announced no raises or bonuses due to how the company was doing, then posted billions in profits on the company intranet for us all to see. The greed in corporate America is astounding." u/Maniick said, "That sounds strike worthy to me. I bet you can find some other pissed people at the place to help you start getting organized."

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