Directors doing their part in taking some pain as coronavirus shutdowns hit pay, jobs

Crown directors are taking a 20 per cent pay cut, while at Star the cut will be 50 per cent.

These are extraordinary and tough times for all companies, but Crown Resorts plans to proceed with its dividend payment due on Friday.

That will put roughly $73m into the pocket of the casino and hospitality group’s major shareholder, James Packer.

Star Entertainment has deferred its dividend and while it is a smaller operation than Crown, it thinks its cash burn rate while operations are shut will be $10m a month, compared with $20m to $30m at Crown.

Star boss Matt Bekier will take a 40 per cent pay cut, which over a year, works out at $720,000 and means he will have to struggle by on $1.1m.

Crown boss Ken Barton will take a 20 per cent pay cut, which means he will drop $600,000 and be forced to get by on $2.4m.

Crown directors are taking a 20 per cent pay cut, while at Star the cut will be 50 per cent.

To its credit, Crown has generously donated 950 rooms in Melbourne and 600 in Perth to help the respective governments with virus isolation efforts.

Both companies have negotiated deals with their banks that will relieve them of loan covenants and at Crown, work can continue on its Sydney development, which will help its recovery efforts.

Back on March 31, Star said its stood-down staff would receive two weeks pay plus leave allowance.

Crown followed through with a similar deal in its statement on Thursday.

Company directors across the board are taking their share of pain as the country copes with the impact of the virus shutdowns.