(Replying to PARENT post)

If Intel cuts its dividend the stock will crater. Since executive compensation is stock-based, tied to the stock performance, or both, there's an obvious incentive to keep the dividend going.

The dividend has become more political than normal. In finance theory, a dividend is supposed to be a paid-out return. If you're cutting salaries to pay the dividend that means that you don't have enough surplus...by definition.

Intel's sales aren't going to get any better anytime soon, so the cut is coming eventually. They're starting a death spiral, one that'll be hard to escape.

πŸ‘€manv1πŸ•‘2yπŸ”Ό0πŸ—¨οΈ0

(Replying to PARENT post)

In 2021 Pat Gelsinger made $179 million dollars[1]. But his salary was $1.1 million. So him taking a 25% cut in his salary is pretty much nothing.

[1] https://www.crn.com/news/components-peripherals/intel-ceo-pa...

πŸ‘€gratonπŸ•‘2yπŸ”Ό0πŸ—¨οΈ0

(Replying to PARENT post)

> executive compensation is stock-based

If they're cutting executive salaries by the largest amount it sounds good on paper but doesn't really do anything because their pay is, as you said, stock based.

So, unsurprisingly, very skeezy unless they change the largest factor in their pay.

πŸ‘€marricksπŸ•‘2yπŸ”Ό0πŸ—¨οΈ0

(Replying to PARENT post)

>If Intel cuts its dividend the stock will crater.

Wait till you see what will happen to the stock when talent leaves the company (whatever it has left, anyway) after such pay cuts...

πŸ‘€coldteaπŸ•‘2yπŸ”Ό0πŸ—¨οΈ0

(Replying to PARENT post)

>> If Intel cuts its dividend the stock will crater

Not necessarily. It really makes zero difference to the valuation of a company. Investors really punish companies that can barely cover their dividend (or worse have to borrow). If earnings are bad and revenues are not growing, the dividend is just a hokey shell game that works for about 5 minutes.

πŸ‘€osigurdsonπŸ•‘2yπŸ”Ό0πŸ—¨οΈ0

(Replying to PARENT post)

FWIW when I worked at Intel their 401k match was also in Intel Stock so there is that. (I do not know if they still do that) And yes, when I was there in '84 they were doing pay cuts to keep layoffs to a minimum.
πŸ‘€ChuckMcMπŸ•‘2yπŸ”Ό0πŸ—¨οΈ0

(Replying to PARENT post)

This is why dividends are so bad. They become an obligation and companies get locked into paying them.
πŸ‘€paulpauperπŸ•‘2yπŸ”Ό0πŸ—¨οΈ0

(Replying to PARENT post)

What does surplus even mean with respect to wages? You could always pay your employees more! So what you mean is surplus is when you pay the market rate wages which in turn suggests the minimum amount of money the company should pay to ensure it gets the workers it needs.

If they cut the salaries and still enough people stay, then the money they saved still is surplus by that definition.

πŸ‘€ramraj07πŸ•‘2yπŸ”Ό0πŸ—¨οΈ0

(Replying to PARENT post)

> Since executive compensation is stock-based, tied to the stock performance, or both, there's an obvious incentive to keep the dividend going.

The wealthy getting wealthier on the backs of the working class. In this case, literally TAKING from the working class to maintain the wealth machine.

πŸ‘€JustSomeNobodyπŸ•‘2yπŸ”Ό0πŸ—¨οΈ0

(Replying to PARENT post)

Why is that, aren’t buy backs better for investors anyway?

One reason I imagine is them being excluded from dividend etfs which would mean an outflow

πŸ‘€moneywoesπŸ•‘2yπŸ”Ό0πŸ—¨οΈ0

(Replying to PARENT post)

Dividents are political, as well as stuff like who owns the company and executive policy and rewards and so on. We just tend to not talk about it a lot, or even see it as a political problem, even though these things underlie a huge part of our society
πŸ‘€penguinvondoomπŸ•‘2yπŸ”Ό0πŸ—¨οΈ0