The Harvard Law School Forum on Corporate Governance https://corpgov.law.harvard.edu The leading online blog in the fields of corporate governance and financial regulation. Sun, 31 May 2026 11:30:19 +0000 en-US hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=6.5.8 https://corpgov.law.harvard.edu/wp-content/uploads/2024/02/cropped-photography-4-e1706898544564-1-32x32.png COVID-19 and Executive Pay – The Harvard Law School Forum on Corporate Governance https://corpgov.law.harvard.edu 32 32 COVID-19 and Executive Pay https://corpgov.law.harvard.edu/2020/07/03/covid-19-and-executive-pay/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=covid-19-and-executive-pay https://corpgov.law.harvard.edu/2020/07/03/covid-19-and-executive-pay/#comments Fri, 03 Jul 2020 13:10:57 +0000 https://corpgov.law.harvard.edu/?p=130784?d=20200707151402EDT Posted by Joseph Bachelder, McCarter & English LLP, on Friday, July 3, 2020
Editor's Note:

Joseph E. Bachelder is special counsel at McCarter & English LLP. This post is based on an article by Mr. Bachelder published in the New York Law Journal. Andy Tsang, a senior financial analyst with the firm, assisted in the preparation of the article.

COVID-19 has caused many illnesses and deaths worldwide. It also has caused significant economic loss for many business enterprises and this may impact, in turn, on the compensation those enterprises pay their executives. Today’s column discusses the impact COVID-19 may have on executive compensation.

On March 13, 2020, the President of the United States declared a national emergency beginning as of March 1 based on COVID-19. On March 27, 2020, the President signed into law the Coronavirus Aid Relief and Economic Security Act (the “CARES Act”). COVID-19-related decisions include picking the date to separate pre-COVID-19 and post-COVID-19 periods (the “COVID Start Date”) for compensation or other purposes. For most companies, at the present time, such decisions are at the discretion of the individual company. Exceptions may include companies receiving loans from, or loans guaranteed by, the U.S. Treasury Department. Such loans may be contingent upon agreement by the borrowing company to certain conditions, including the date to be treated as the COVID Start Date.

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