Nintendo CEO Took a 50% Pay Cut to Save all Employees from Layoff. Would any Western Company CEOs do this?
Wednesday, 12 Mar 2025
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I’m pretty sure most western CEOs would fire half their workforce and then give themselves a nice healthy bonus for saving the company some money.
Western companies actually layoff people *when it’s not necessary* just to round up their numbers for the next quarter or the next investor’s meetingÂ
Here is the Source:
As sweeping rounds of layoffs rock the tech, media and finance industries in 2024, some video game fans are thinking about former Nintendo CEO Satoru Iwata.
Iwata ran the Kyoto, Japan-based video game company from 2002 until his death in 2015. In 2013, Nintendo released the Wii U console as a successor to the mega-popular Wii. It was a commercial failure, pushing the company into years of losses.
To avoid layoffs, Iwata took a 50% pay cut to help pay for employee salaries, saying a fully-staffed Nintendo would have a better chance of rebounding.
[https://www.cnbc.com/2024/02/13/nintendo-ceo-once-halved-salary-to-prevent-layoffs-why-thats-uncommon.html](https://www.cnbc.com/2024/02/13/nintendo-ceo-once-halved-salary-to-prevent-layoffs-why-thats-uncommon.html)
This happened a long time ago, and we’re seeing this positive news about Nintendo at roughly the same time they got a lot of flak for deliberately suing and shutting down various nintendo emulators right before they admit that emulation is legal?
I am a suspicious.
I think Japanese businesses are required by law to exhaust other assets before resorting to layoffs. America would never put such a policy in place.Â
Lot’s of American company CEOs have and do take pay cuts to save their companies.
[CEOs promised to take pay cuts during the pandemic. How many actually did? | Fortune](https://fortune.com/2021/08/31/ceo-pay-cuts-covid-pandemic-salaries-compensation/)
| **For the most part, companies went through with their 2020 pledge to cut CEO pay.** Among Russell 3000 companies, **647** announced top executive pay cuts last year. Of those companies, **79%** went through with it.Â
A 50% pay cut was enough to do that??? How much was this dude being paid???
GameStop CEO Ryan Cohen takes a $0 salary…
GameStop CEO and Chairman Ryan Cohen receives $0 salary and $0 compensation
I mean… yes. There have been multiple cases of western CEOs doing stuff like this. It’s rare, but it’s rare *everywhere* – this isn’t really an east vs west issue.
When I look at it, I see a CEO getting a way too high salary. I mean… saving all employees with a 50% cut. Actually… Wtf
During covid. The company I worked for cut pay 10% on all employees including the owner except front line employees.
They wernt cut as they were taking the risks while everyone else was WFH.
Once it was over and finances were stabilised the pay cut was reinstated.
Not all people are greedy cunts.
This was a long time ago…. Timing of all this pro-nintendo stuff is very suspicious
This was more than a decade ago. Nintendo of 2025 would absolutely not repeat this behavior.
There have being lay offs on videogame companies through all of 2024, and Nintendo is the only of the big 3 that didn’t do any iirc.
Not typically due to US individualism… however, the salary pay cut could actually work in their favor if it increases the stock price and a lot of their total compensation is stock-based.
For instance you took a $1M salary cut, but it allowed to you keep morale high and your shares went up $1.5M, that would be ‘right’ strategic move if you were looking out for yourself (the US way).
Yes, Dan Price did a smiliar thing: [Dan Price, CEO who cut his pay so workers earned $70,000, quits amid legal woes – CBS News](https://www.cbsnews.com/news/dan-price-ceo-70k-gravity-payments-resigns-quits/)
Dude cut hit salary so he could raise the salary of his employees, now he ears as much as they do. Other people claimed this would fail, but in reality, more employees stayed with the business which has made it possible for it to grow a lot more.
Yes. Many. The CEO of the first company I worked for which was public took a $1 salary for 2 years, and made all the VPs take a 20% cut to keep from layoffs.
If you are so anti America, just move
Ryan Cohen is the Chairman/CEO of Gamestop and takes no salary or shares.
Would any other eastern CEOs do it?
Nintendo #Ad right on time
CEOs don’t deserve the kind of pay they think they do. No one deserves to earn that while there are people starving and homeless. Maximum wage commence! Demand it! Bring the jack arses back down to where they belong. Working like the rest of us.Â
No.
Most would not. Some certainly would and have done so. They have the power to do it quietly. the type of people willing to take that pay cut, most certainly are doing it for the right reasons and don’t need or want people to know about it.
My father works for a company in Canada that did this. Instead of laying off workers during the pandemic, the top earners all diminished their pay checks by 25-30%, and are still cut at the moment.
Depends on the CEO.
Zoom CEO did it a few years back.
Tell that to BP CEO, about to layoff 8k people
They lay off people just to increase their bonus even when things are going well.
Do you really need to ask that question? LOL we have countless examples these past 2 years that the answer is a big fat NO. They would even go and record cool bro surfing videos while their companies laying of people in thousands at the same time. cough cough zuck cough
Mister Iwata set an example the industry refuses to follow. With every round of layoffs announced, Mister Iwata’s absence is felt.
I work for an outdoor apparel company headquartered in the US and all the executive leaders took a paycut during Covid. Regular non-exec employees kept their salaries. So there are good companies out there… they are just few and far in between
He’s safe.
During the 2020 pandemic, several CEOs did that
Starbucks CEO have himself no salary or bonus for that year to protect jobs. Southwest airlines CEO took a salary cut to avoid mass layoffs. Bob Chapel (Disney) took a pay cut to avoid layoffs. MGM Resorts CEO did it. FORD Motor Company CEO took a 50% pay cut. Delta Air lines CEO took a 100% salary cut
So yes, lots would do it. Does every post on Reddit have to be about the evil US billionaires? Lol. It’s like 50 posts a day
The vast, vast majority of Western CEO’s for publicly traded companies WOULD do this, because they’d have some shady backdoor deal to get 100X that value back in stock gains that they aren’t taxed on.
It only took half his wage to save the company? Maybe they wouldnt get laid off if he didnt have all the money then?
Is this recent? If so, I need to go buy something from Nintendo.
ASK Elon if would not get himself a bonus package that is more than Tesla ever made from cars?!
One semi-major company did this in the U.S., That’s it
NO, Western CEOs would cut 50% of the staff and stop ordering components for year end in order to falsify the books for the board meeting, in order to get his bonos, then step down and hand the entire flaming mess to someone else to suffer and take the blame for his fuckery in the New year
A simple google search of “US CEOs who took a pay cut for employees” would tell you…YES. But this is reddit so, no, ceo is bad man and hate employee.
Nope. They would fire 75% of the company, take a huge bonus, and beg the federal government for a bail out.
Not without more Luigi out in the world. They’re too busy buying our government and being petty trash.
I would! Now, if someone would just make me CEO of something…
No, not here
RIP Iwata. What an absolute Chad.
They would be fired for not maximising profits