Billionaire businessman and philanthropist Sheldon Adelson says he is paying all of his employees who have been sent home during the coronavirus pandemic as if they are working and urged all businesses that can afford it to do the same.
“Although the resort hotels of my company, Las Vegas Sands, are shuttered, I’m paying every one of our nearly 10,000 employees as though they were still working,” Adelson said in an op-ed for the New York Post titled “I’m paying all my workers for 2 months, so should any business that can.” “We’re even working to make up for lost tips. I hope to do that right up until the time that we can reopen our businesses.”
Adelson added that paying employees who aren’t working is not only the right thing to do. It’s also “good business.”
The casino magnate told a story about growing up in poverty with his father coming home from a low-paying job but still put money in a “charity box.”
“When I asked why he would give to others when we had so little, he would say, ‘There is always someone whose need is greater than ours,’” Adelson wrote.
It’s that mentality, Adelson says, that is motivating him to implore business owners to do everything they can to take care of employees during this crisis.
“To my fellow corporate executives who are looking at spreadsheets and trying to determine the impact this crisis will have on sales and share prices, let me say: Our job as business leaders is now as simple as it is challenging,” Adelson continued. “It is to maximize the number of employees and their families that we can help — and help them for as long as possible.”
After praising the work that elected officials such as President Trump and New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo have done, Adelson expressed that he is optimistic about America’s resilience despite tough times ahead.
“As an octogenarian, I have seen the perseverance of this country over and over again. The common thread is that this nation and its people always come together in times of great need. There is no doubting this is one of those times, and the need is great.”
“Let us prove the greatness, compassion and resiliency of this country, once again,” Adelson concluded.
