America’s largest wireless service provider plans to cut 1,700 jobs by offering its technicians and call center employees buyouts. Verizon Communications announced last week that it would reduce its nationwide workforce by 1 percent, and if enough workers don’t accept the buyouts, it will resort to involuntary layoffs.

Verizon paid chief executive Lowell C. McAdam more than $22.5 million in 2011, according to a Wall Street Journal analysis of executive compensation. The company has paid its top five executives more than $350 million in the last five years, according to the Communications Workers of America, the union that deals most directly with Verizon:

More than half of McAdam’s compensation package came from “Performance Awards,” according to the WSJ analysis. In 2011, the company’s shareholders saw an 18.8 percent increase in the value of their returns. Workers, however, have not shared in those gains. Verizon eliminated 26,000 jobs over a two-year period in 2008 and 2009 — including 16,000 jobs in 2009 alone — and laid off roughly 13,000 more in 2010.

At the same time, Verizon has demanded sizable concessions from workers in its negotiations with unions, asking for the elimination of the company’s pension plan, increases in health care premiums, and extra leeway to outsource jobs, according to a release from the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers.

Its up to the board of directors to stop being stupid. If the government does it artificially it just causes more problems.

I do think this is changing, as companies from around the world compete more and more large companies are seeing CEO's who make much less with a much better track record for positive changes and are starting to work on recruiting and changing the culture, it takes time.

If people today had moral fiber they would be the ones to change this practice among so many other practices today, stop doing business with Verizon and tell them you'll come back when the CEO's pay is significantly reduced and no more lay offs occur. I'm not a 100% but I think Verizon is the most expensive communications company to deal with and its no wonder.

Sorry to kind of disagree but profits have nothing to do with cutting workers. A company doesn't want to keep an employee if there is not enough work even if they can afford them. They recently had a big cut over to 4G. They probably needed more employees during the cut. There are lots more service problems when changing technologies so they would need more people for customer service. As they system becomes stable and your cut overs slow down you need less people. I work for a wireless company and see first had how many problems there are when switching technologies.

you funny!

Hey, the poor guys got eat too! Geeze!

So you believe in paying employees just because you can afford it even though you have no work for them. I got laid off from Lockheed before. Don't you think they had plenty of money to keep me on? They wouldn't have even noticed my salary compared to the billions they make. That isn't how the world works though.