JCPenney has been a sinking ship for years, even when the economy was in great shape. Paying bonuses to those execs may be bad optics, but aside from maybe firing a few less, probably has no bearing on the survival of the company. The company has 4.5B in debt (the bonuses aren't even 0.2% of that total). In the last month they missed $30M in payments (the $17M payment was made eventually) on that debt; these bonuses are only $7.5M. In other words, if they paid no bonuses whatsoever, it has little to no effect on JCPenney's solvency. Eventually, all of the workers will lose their job.
"...necessary to retain the management team and keep them motivated..."<p>CEO Soltau currently earns $5,877,000 a year... isn't that enough motivation?
Imagine you are a manager/executive - would you rather be the manager of a stable happy ship, or would you rather be a manager on the Titanic while it's sinking?<p>A sinking ship needs a better captain than a stable ship.<p>A big company needs executives whether you like it not, and they need to attract experienced executives who can properly manage the business.<p>The executives they have now needs to be paid well to make sure the bankruptcy process goes as smoothly as possible and return maximum value to shareholders.<p>Sure JC Penny could piss off their execs by saying "sorry, because we are going bankrupt, no bonuses for you".<p>Hearing that, any decent exec would leave and this sinking ship. That would cause JC Penny to have a total chaotic bankruptcy process, which would likely make the business lose a lot more money.