March 11, 2009 (FinancialWire) -- Vail Resorts, Inc. (NYSE: MTN) said it is implementing a companywide wage reduction plan under which employees of the company will have their salaries reduced on a sliding scale from 2.5 percent for seasonal employees to ten percent for executives. Affected employees will then join a stock-based incentive compensation program.

According to Vail, the plan is designed to reduce labor costs while preserving as many jobs as possible in an uncertain economic environment.

In addition to the wage cuts, each full-time, year-round employee will receive a grant of stock-based incentive compensation with a value on a sliding scale from 1.5 percent of salary to 7.5 percent of salary for executives. This will increase the number of employees owning stock from around 260 to over 2,500, allowing many more employees to participate in ownership of the company.

Rob Katz, the company's chief executive officer, has decided to not take any salary for a 12-month period and then receive a 15-percent salary reduction. He will not participate in the stock issuance.

Each outside member of the company's board has also decided to reduce their annual cash retainer by twenty percent. Wage reductions for seasonal employees will be effective after the current winter season. The wage reduction for all other employees will be effective on April 2.

The wage reduction plan, combined with certain other adjustments, is expected to result in expense savings of over $10 million on an annualized basis.

Broomfield, Colorado-based Vail Resorts and its subsidiaries operate the mountain resort properties of Vail, Beaver Creek, Breckenridge and Keystone mountain resorts in Colorado, the Heavenly Ski Resort in the Lake Tahoe area of California and Nevada, and the Grand Teton Lodge Company in Jackson Hole, Wyoming.

The company's RockResorts unit manages hotel properties across the United States and the Caribbean. Its Vail Resorts Development Co. is a real estate planning, development and construction subsidiary.

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