As the COVID-19 pandemic continues to negatively impact the economy, companies are cutting costs and Disney is no different. Monday afternoon, Sports Business Journal’s John Ourand reported Disney’s ESPN asked some of its high-profile talent to take a 15% salary reduction for 90 days to limit layoffs.
According to Andrew Marchand of The New York Post some of the names agreeing to a pay cut include Stephen A. Smith, Scott Van Pelt, Dick Vitale, Mike Breen, Mark Jackson and Jay Bilas.
“We are asking about 100 of our commentators to join with our executives and take a temporary salary reduction,” ESPN said in a statement. “These are challenging times, and we are all in this together.”
The 15% pay cut request comes after ESPN executives took salary reductions last month. Executive VPs had their salary reduced by 30%, Senior VPs took a 25% pay cut and VPs lost 20%. The temporary pay reductions hope to combat the potential need for unpaid furloughs and layoffs, keeping employees with lower salaries on payroll.
Late last year, Stephen A. agreed to a new contract with ESPN worth $8 million annually, making him their highest paid on-air personality. His $8 million salary equates to about $2 million per quarter which means Smith will forfeit approximately $300,000 from the 15% pay cut request.
In addition to ESPN personnel taking a reduced salary for 90 days, The Walt Disney Company has furloughed a significant number of employees from their twelve theme parks, including 43,000 at Florida’s Walt Disney World.
Brandon Contes is a former reporter for BSM, now working for Awful Announcing. You can find him on Twitter @BrandonContes or reach him by email at Brandon.Contes@gmail.com.
