Disney paying dividends, not employees
 

Disney recently furloughed about 100,000 salaried employees which saves the corporation abt $500,000,000 [corrected] per month. They are continuing to cover health insurance. They wrote to their employees to be sure to apply for the federal program giving them $600/wk in extra unemployment and Florida benefits of $275/wk.

Here is the reason for my post. In July Disney is scheduled to pay it shareholders $1,500,000,000 in dividends. That would cover 3 months of salary to its employees and save you the taxpayer of FL and USA from assuming the cost. If the 500,000,000 [corrected] per month is the savings to Disney, that would also then include Disney's employer contribution to Social Security, Medicare, and the state Unemployment Fund. So these programs are being non-funded by paying stockholders instead of workers.

It seems that the shareholders who invest expecting a share of the profit of the corporation would be expected to take a hit when the corporation does poorly. Why isn't Disney cancelling the July dividend and instead using that money to pay its workers.

Carnival cruise has cancelled its dividend. It can be done.

Corporate greed
 

Because Corporate Greed always takes precedence over Corporate Responsibility - What ever headlines there are, we are never, ever ‘All in this together’

How do they save only $500,000 per month by furloughing 100,000 employees? That is only 5 dollars per employee.

Illegals

Congress should have never passed a bill that provides more income for unemployed employees than when they were working. That encourages employees not to work, which is just the opposite result that they were trying to achieve. Why don't they fix it?

I don't think that Carnival pays into the unemployment fund because they are not U.S. company and don't even pay U.S. income tax. Their employees also don't pay U.S. taxes. But, Disney pays for unemployment compensation and I think their employees should be able to use the fund. Why should the Disney stockholders lose money when the company has been successful? I don't know if Disney received any of the stimulus money or not. But, furloughing employees is a logical action when you don't have any work for them to do.

Oh!! I'm usually more careful. I missed a few zeroes. I am going back to correct the initial post but thank you for catching my mistake.

500,000 should be 500,000,000 [500 hundred million]

I used Carnival as an example that I easily found that corporations can and do suspend dividends to shareholders when they have a business downturn. I didn't say anything regarding Carnival otherwise. I agree Disney employees should qualify if they are not being paid by Disney.

My argument is that if Disney has 1.5 billion in cash they are planning on paying out in July, that the money should go to its workers, not to its stockholders. You actually are allowed to furlough workers and still pay them. Workers >>> stockholders in my ideal world. YMMV

However, the only LEGAL requirement put upon a corporate board of directors is to MAKE A PROFIT for their shareholders.

:boom:


:bigbow:

Curious that you are only targeting Disney??

Haven't all the theme parks based in FL laid off their non-essential employees, haven't all the huge hotel chains operating in Orlando done the same with their non-essential staffs??

You can be sure that conversations are happening in the front offices and the board rooms of large corporations across the country regarding the declaration of dividends

These large corporations are going to be digging deep into their cash reserves to 'retool' their whole operation to ensure a safe working environment for staff and an environment that customers will view as safe....where's that money coming from now that they're shut down?

I suspect that the ex-dividend date of record for Disney's next payout is still a few weeks away

What's equally important is that these companies are able to reopen for business and get their employees back to work a quickly as possible

remember, no matter how flat the pancake is, there's always two sides to it

Is anyone really surprised that a major corporation furloughed employees after more than 30 days with NO income? I give them kudos for continuing the health care benefits.

Thank you for your contribution. I am not picking on Disney. If you click the link to the news report, that report is about Disney. It does say in that report that other companies are continuing to pay their employees but no details are given.
You are correct that the dividend is a few weeks away, it is in July.
If Disney were using its cash on hand to, as you suggested, 'retool' their whole operation to ensure a safe working environment for staff and an environment that customers will view as safe, I would think that's fine.

But that is not what Disney is doing with this bucket of cash. They are paying it to stockholders. The article mentions but is not specific so I left it out, that Disney is also giving large bonuses to its top executives from its cash on hand.

Disney I understand continues to pay furloughed employees benefits. Give them credit for that. Also, employers pay into the unemployment system for their employees. Remember Florida unemployment pay is 275.00 a week which is less than $7.00 per hour. The stimulus package pays 600.00 additional a week. Between the two the unemployed Disney employee is making just roughly north of 21.00 per hour. Hallelujah that is probably more money than they make working... such a deal! :bigbow:

OR


If investors are not willing to invest in Disney, there is no Disney and their are no jobs.

Really, you don't think the shareholders are taking a hit? Apparently you haven't checked the stock price of Disney lately. The dividend will help buffer the huge hit in the stock price by a little bit, but there is still plenty of pain. And do you not expect a corporation to furlough employees when they are forced to close down all operations by an event that was not of their making? At least the employees were furloughed and not outright laid off like lots of companies have done to employees. Disney could have laid off employees and then taken advantage of the daily increasing unemployment rate to rehire workers at cheaper wages.

Bottom line, corporations are owned by their shareholders. Corporations are in business to maximize the returns of the people who invest in and own the corporation. If the corporation goes bankrupt, those same shareholders are at the bottom of the pecking order when the company is liquidated.

It's called capitalism, not socialism.

Stock holders always come first as they are the owners of a company.

Never been to Disney, don’t plan on going to Disney. I don’t even like driving by Disney.

$500,000,000.00

Rattle That Sabre Blueash
 

So are you a former Disney executive ? A Former (surely not current) Disney Stockholder ? Are you an expert in their HR Policies ? understand what they have already done for their employees ? Do you know the difference between a layoff and a furlough ? OF course you realize that they have ZERO current income from the theme parks. You didn't mention that Disney will continue to pay ALL health insurance costs, including that normally paid by the employee. . BTW, Disney stock is down 30% YTD and 26% down for the past year. Is that not enough of a "hit" for a stockholder to take ?? Disney, like other listed corporations, is owned by the stockholders, and corporate responsibility requires a balance between them and the employees .. Seems to me given the severity of the situation, they are doing a decent job.

Once again for the guys in the back row:

1. the added income is temporary.
2. if an employee is recalled to his job, or offered a similar job at similar pay in a similar location, and he turns the job down - he loses ALL his unemployment and risks being required to repay what he was already paid so far.

The "incentive" for not working, for employees, is not as valuable as the incentive to find a replacement job or hope for your old job back.

Disney is not just theme parks. In fact it's not even just Disney. Disney owns:

ABC, ESPN, Touchstone Pictures, Marvel, Lucasfilm, half of A&E, 50% of the History Channel, 50% of Lifetime, Pixar, 10% of Vice Media, and Core Publishing.

It also owns:
Star Wars, the Muppets, Marvel Cinematic Universe, Disney Princesses/Princes, the franchises of Chronicles of Narnia, Pirates of the Caribbean, Winnie the Pooh, Indiana Jones, and Grey's Anatomy.

It also owns venture capital companies that brought the GoPro, Photobucket, and a bunch of other companies to the world, production companies for YouTube channels, management compenies, and management companies.

While they took a bite due to the closing of theme parks, they are still doing VERY well with everything else.

Remember Euro Disney? My family won't forget it any time soon. Grandma offered each of us our choice of stock in it, or cash value, when it first went public. I took the cash. I was the only one in the family to benefit from it. The rest lost it all. And Disney continued to thrive.

Disney won't be tanking any time soon. But their employees are already in the process.

Not correct regarding losing unemployment. The stimulus bill changed the normal rules for collecting unemployment. It allows employees to quit their job and still collect unemployment. Many employers have complained that they wanted to keep paying their employees, but the employees would rather collect unemployment because they are getting more money to not work. So, it is hard for an employer to compete when the Government offers more pay to not work.

Well it’s the cost of capital. Without capital corporations can’t operate. Shareholders are getting a very modest dividend compared to what the interest would be if they replaced equity with debt. Shareholders are owners of the company. Employees are stakeholders. So don’t get all pompous on a dividend that represents a return on risk that investors have taken

And since Carnival suspended their dividend their cost of capital will increase. So that means less money to pay expenses. Like salaries.

nice response to the OP....

Its about the cost of capital and risk/reward relationship. When you get rewarded for a risky investment then people say you are greedy. Disney stock is $100 a share and pays $ 1.76 annual dividend. What fair rate of return would you like for an entertainment company with theme parks that cost hundreds of millions a month when sitting empty?

Business 101!

The board of directors and executive chief management team has a fiduciary responsibility to their owners! It is to maximize shareholder wealth by stock price growth. All their signed employment contracts state this! If they fail executing their fiduciary legal responsibilities they can be sued either through the corporation or as an individual !

I agree that in these bad times they could stop dividends and save the cash for future cost.

People who own their stock bought it mainly based on their outstanding dividend payments. Over 65% of their shares are owned by unions, pension funds, mutual funds, IRA retirement funds, etc. if they stop paying dividends they hurt their shareholders which many times are your neighbors.

Shareholders cannot apply for unemployment or get $1,200 free cash from the government.

How is it corporate greed to not pay employees that are not performing any work?

If your lawn guy doesn't show up to mow your lawn, do you still pay him? How paying your barber or hairdresser for not cutting your hair?

Where does this idea that businesses have a responsibility to pay people that are not working? Isn't that why we have an unemployment program?

It's so sad that so many in this country have been brainwashed to hate anyone that has accomplished anything.

Not corporate greed, individual greed by those that have Disney in their portfolios. They want their dividend since that is what their strategy is....if your dividend is diverted without your input would you be ok with that? If the investors are then I assume the Corporations could divert dividend payments for whatever they determine is more important.

Bizarre comment. Individual investors are not guaranteed a dividend. If you are expecting a dividend and it doesn’t appear then you are free to sell your shares and invest elsewhere. Your only input to the corporation is your vote for board members and your buying/selling of shares of stock. Now, it seems like some companies have always issued dividends but that is not a guarantee that they always will. Oh, and by the way, many equity mutual funds own Disney. Chances are that if you own shares of a non-market segment mutual fund, you own shares of Disney.

And Carnival's cost of capital will go up. They will have to borrow instead of relying on equity because the reward has been taken off the table for shareholders. Debt will reduce EPS - dividends reduce cash but not earnings. Investors will be reluctant to make additional capital investment, so now the cost of capital goes up and the financial statement ratios become skewed. You need to look at the big picture.

What Lincoln had to say
 

“Labor is prior to and independent of capital. Capital is only the fruit of labor and could never have existed if labor hadn’t existed first. Labor is the superior of capital, and deserves much the higher consideration.” Abraham Lincoln December 3, 1861

Is the Morse Family greedy because they try to maximize profits?
Is the District greedy because they try to minimize costs?
Greed is in the eye of the envious...

If you have ever bought or sold stocks
If your IRA own stocks
If you get paid a pension from an entity that owns stocks

You are taking part in "corporate greed" We all are in it together :a040:

Its a business, not a charity

If we had not over reacted to this, so far statistically uneventful virus our kids would still have jobs and our grandchildren would not be crying because they can't go to school and had to cancel their Disney trip. Look at the Sweden numbers. Please

Wrong, NOT "all"..by any means. :oops:

In fact, it's barely over 1/2...that own stocks in ANY form.

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All employees were paid for 5 weeks, until April 18th. Health benefits will continue with Disney paying employers and employee contributions. Parks and resorts may be closed, but properties still require maintenance and care. Revenue has drastically diminished, but expenses beyond salary still continue. Stockholders help keep this company going and growing. If Disney fails, the economic impact for FL would be beyond terrible. My 2cents.