A golden parachute has been defined as an agreement between a company and an employee (usually upper executive) specifying that the employee will receive certain significant benefits if employment is terminated. Most definitions specify the employment termination is as a result of a merger or takeover, also known as "Change-in-control benefits". But more recently the term has been used to describe excessive CEO (and other executives) severance packages unrelated to change in ownership (also known as a Golden handshake). The benefits may include severance pay, cash bonuses, stock options, or other benefits.
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Famous quotes containing the words golden and/or parachute:
“I prefer “you” in the plural, I want “you,”
You must come to me, all golden and pale
Like the dew and the air.
And then I start getting this feeling of exaltation.”
—John Ashbery (b. 1927)
“I did not just fall in love. I made a parachute jump.”
—Zora Neale Hurston (1891–1960)