Boeing to give employees stock shares in 2021 instead of pay rises

Restricted stock units will vest for workers who stick with the plane maker through December 14, 2023

Workers enter the Boeing Renton Factory in Renton, US. Most executives, managers and most employees will go without raises in 2021. Reuters  

Boeing is scrapping most pay raises next year and giving out shares instead as the company braces for a long recovery from the coronavirus pandemic.

The restricted stock units will vest for workers who stick with Boeing through December 14, 2023, chief executive Dave Calhoun said in a message to employees on Wednesday.

Executives are excluded from the one-time grant, as are union members, whose annual compensation is set through collective bargaining.

Even with a vaccine, it may take another three years for Boeing to rebound fully, Mr Calhoun warned. Boeing’s debt has soared to $61 billion and the company is shedding about a third of its workforce as a collapse in demand for new jetliners compounds the financial squeeze from a 20-month grounding of the 737 Max, the planemaker’s best-selling model.

“We will continue to position our company for the long term and chart a course to the other side of the recovery by making smart bets and investments,” Mr Calhoun told employees. “That starts with investing in our people, empowering them to make the changes that will transform our company, and sharing in our successes, together.”

While executives, managers and most employees will go without raises next year, the stock awards have the “potential to deliver value significantly beyond a traditional merit increase”, Mr Calhoun said. It’s the first time Boeing has widely distributed restricted stock units, which are typically reserved for senior leaders.

Since the end of October, Boeing soared 59 per cent through Tuesday, the most on the Dow Jones Industrial Average, as US officials cleared the 737 Max to restart commercial flights and the distribution of coronavirus vaccines began. Boeing had been the Dow’s worst performer during the first 10 months of 2020 and is still down about 30 per cent for the year as a whole.