If Menke wanted to inspire any sort of confidence in his company's long term viability he would look for long term pay incentives instead of a huge short term gain in compensation. Any decent CEO would lead his company through bankruptcy by setting an example and being a beacon of hope that things will work out for the better on the other side of bankruptcy. After the bankruptcies of 2001 nearly all CEOs reduced or took no compensation. Instead when his company needs liquidity the most, he doubles his salary and sucks funds out of the failing company.

Menke has shown that he is not committed to this company and his only loyalty is to the highest paycheck. How can Menke feel justified that the difficulties "his family will endure" through bankruptcy are worthy of $675,000 while he is putting thousands of employees on the street with no income and thousands more will suffer pay cuts and quality of life decreases?

This bankruptcy was entirely caused by failures of executive management to properly bid for contracts, merge three airlines, and reduce overhead costs and duplicate positions. Menke has started to fix the situation by dropping the unprofitable contracts, but has yet to fix the other issues facing Pinnacle. If and when Menke leads Pinnacle back to profitability he deserves to be well rewarded for his work.

There should be no compensation for inept management until the company is returned to profitability.