All senior executives at JD.com are to have their pay cut by as much as 20 percent, according to an internal memo sent by the head of the company Richard Liu Tuesday.

Liu said the cuts – planned to kick in next year - are part of the company’s strategy to assist grass-roots staff and ease some of their financial pressure. 

JD.com has over 500,000 employees after it took over Deppon Express in July. Last year’s salary bill was 33 billion yuan (US$4.6 billion). The company has already raised the wages of frontline logistics workers. The logistics salary bill is now 27.8 percent higher than a year ago.