Golden handshake
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A golden handshake is a clause in an executive employment contract that provides the executive with a significant severance package in the case that the executive loses their job through firing, restructuring, or even scheduled retirement. This can be in the form of cash, equity, and other benefits, and is often accompanied by an accelerated vesting of stock options.
Typically, "golden handshakes" are offered only to high-ranking executives by major corporations and may entail a value measured in millions of dollars. Golden handshakes are given to offset the risk inherent in taking the new job, since high-ranking executives have a high likelihood of being fired and since a company requiring an outsider to come in at such a high level may be in a precarious financial position.
In India, golden handshake schemes are called Voluntary retirement schemes, where employees are offered benefits in return for early retirement.
See also: golden parachute
External links
- [link] - The Guinness World Records page on F. Ross Johnson, the record holder for largest Golden handshake (US$53,800,000 from RJR Nabisco) in February 1989
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