Orlando, April 22 (RHC)-- Disney will stop paying over 100,000 employees this week — nearly half its workforce.  The company is maintaining its executive bonus plan and a planned $1.5 billion dividend.

Disney chief executive Bob Chapek said he would take half of his $2.5 million base pay due to the crisis, but he makes an estimated $25 million annually thanks to bonuses and a long-term incentive award. 

Disney chair and former CEO Bob Iger earned $47.5 million as CEO last year and is worth $690 million.

Jeremy Haicken, president of the UNITE HERE local representing Disney World workers in Florida, told The Hollywood Reporter: “Florida is on the verge of a humanitarian disaster.  The system was designed to fail even in the best of times, and now hundreds of thousands of workers are paying the price.  What are workers going to do when their children are starving — ask them to wait seven weeks for [Governor Ron] DeSantis to send them a check?”