SolarCity Co-Founders To Take Pay Cut To $1 Per Year

Lyndon Rive and Peter Rive, co-founders of the leading US solar developer, SolarCity, will take an extreme pay cut ahead of planned job cuts to streamline the company’s business in the wake of lower than expected PV installations for 2016.

SolarCity Co-Founder & CEO Lyndon Rive, Chairman Elon Musk, and SolarCity Co-Founder & COO Peter Rive. (Mark Von Holden/AP Images for SolarCity)

As reported earlier this month, SolarCity posted a net loss of $250 million in the second quarter, and downgraded full-year 2016 installations guidance. A slowdown in the second half of this year is expected to hit the solar industry, specifically in China and the United States, which is at least partly responsible for SolarCity’s revised guidance.

In an SEC filing, SolarCity advised shareholders that it would begin implementing initiatives “to realign the Company’s operating expenses to match the Company’s reduced guidance for Megawatts Installed.” According to the filing, these initiatives are expected to be completed by the end of this year, with a “substantial portion” of the estimated $3 million to $5 million in restructuring charges expected to fall heavily on the second half of fiscal year 2016.

It is expected that SolarCity will cut an unspecified number of jobs to help realign its business.

However, most importantly, the company’s co-founders, brothers Lyndon and Peter Rive, have requested that the company reduce their annual salaries from their current $275,000 per year to a token $1 per year, effective as of August 16, 2016. $1 is the minimum salary permitted by law, and signifies an impressive move in advance of expected job cuts.