Premium ContentMouse over Home then click on Premium Content for information.TD Ameritrade has laid off 145 employees this week as part of a cost-cutting initiative that also has included lower and fewer raises, hiring reductions and business unit consolidation.
Meanwhile, the company's chief executive and president, Fred Tomczyk, received a $200,000 bump to his base cash salary, bringing his annual cash payouts to $700,000, according to a filing last week with the Securities and Exchange Commission.
The timing of the raise, which followed a meeting of TD Ameritrade's board of directors and executive compensation committee in November, disappointed at least one employee who lost his job.
The employee, who spoke on the condition that his name not be used, said he understands TD Ameritrade's move to save money, but said that if jobs are being slashed, Tomczyk should forgo any base salary raises.
In terms of overall compensation, Tomczyk's incentive plan is based 30 percent in cash and 70 percent in equity and stock, making the $200,000 raise approximately a 5 percent increase, said Kim Hillyer, a TD Ameritrade spokeswoman.
Hillyer called the timing of the layoffs and Tomczyk's raise "unfortunate," but said the raises for Tomczyk were justified because TD Ameritrade hit a number of major goals on metrics such as collecting a record amount of net new assets during the year.
"You never want to have to make those kind of decisions, especially this time of year," she said of the layoffs.
According to employees, those laid off received three weeks of pay for each year worked at TD Ameritrade. The layoffs represent about a 2.7 percent reduction in the Omaha-based online brokerage's total staff, which includes about 5,300 workers, about 1,900 in Omaha.
The belt tightening, Hillyer said, won't have any impact on TD Ameritrade's new 12-story headquarters and campus, which is being constructed in Omaha's Old Mill area. The project is expected to be completed in early 2013.
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