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Starbucks CEO Salary Cut: Spot the Issue

I saw a news item in the WSJ about the Starbucks CEO's announcement that he's cutting his own salary from $1.2 million to $10,000 per year. Great PR, right? But, let's play "spot the wage and hour issue."

Unless I'm missing something, and I've been accused of missing many things,* Mr. Schultz transformed himself into a non-exempt CEO of a publicly traded corporation! (Yes, the salary is too low to qualify him as exempt under federal law).

I got a laugh out of this, because I'm an idiot. But wouldn't they vet this issue with their employment lawyers?

This is probably not a big deal, since Mr. Schultz is likely not going to sue his own company to recover the overtime wages he will be due once he fails the exempt test. Howard...call me.

*If there is some other aspect of his compensation that qualifies him for the salary test that was not reported in the article, please accept my apologies o SBUX legal team.