PayTM Founder Vijaya Shekhar has joined Marriot CEO Arne Sorenson in giving up his salary for the benefit of his company’s staff.
Sharing the video of Sorenson where the Marriot CEO spoke about the grave challenges facing his company and announced that he would be forfeiting his own salary for the rest of 2020, Shekhar said he was moved to tears and had decided to forego his salary for this month and the next, with the amount to be committed to PayTM’s office-help-staff.
“This message becomes totally somethings else after 4:30 mins. I just couldn’t hold tears in my eyes. Inspired by Arne, I will not take my salary of this month & next. I commit that money to any needs of @Paytm office-help-staff in these testing times” Shekhar tweeted.
According to a PTI report citing One97 Communications filings with Corporate Affairs Ministry, Shekhar took home Rs 3 crore in 2019.
There was more good news for PayTM employees on Friday: The staff member from the Gurgaon office who had tested positive had successfully recovered and was discharged from the hospital.
PayTM has asked all their staff to work from home until March 31.
Shekhar was later joined by One Wallet CEO Neeraj Tiwari, who also tweeted saying he would forego his salary for two months.
Earlier, Marriot CEO Sorenson has announced that the luxury hotel was facing an unprecedented crisis, with their current financial situation more dire than the worst quarter the business had ever faced. According to Sorenson, the chain’s global businesses were running about 75 per cent lower than usual, with hundreds of branches closed including some that would never open again. Sorenson announced that he would receive no salary for the rest of 2020 and that his executive team would take a 50 per cent pay cut. In addition, hiring would be frozen with the exception of a small number of mission-critical positions.
Tourism, hospitality and aviation are some of the hardest-hit industries from the global coronavirus pandemic. Senior executives from several airlines has also opted to forfeit part of all of their salaries, with the list of companies to have announced such measures including Thai Airways, Singapore Airlines, Air New Zealand, Qantas Airways, Virgin Atlantic and Delta Air, to name a few.
IndiGo in India had announced pay-cuts in the range of 5-20 per cent for all its employees, including that of its CEO.