If you own the firm, you're the one who benefits when you take a pay cut. So when Fox Corp chairmen Rupert and Lachlan Murdoch say they will forgo salaries in September - and other senior leadership follow suit, taking cuts of up to 50 per cent - you know who benefits.

Which makes the initiative of Australian property platform Domain the more interesting.

Staff have been given the option of taking 20 per cent of their salary package in share rights over the next six months, as an alternative to choosing reduced working hours.

The Project Zipline programme was disclosed in an announcement to the Australian Securities Exchange, and comes as Domain had agreed an increased debt facility of $80 million, in addition to an existing $225 million (making current net debt $149.5 million).

Chief executive Jason Pellegrino says more than 90 per cent of staff have opted into the programme. Pellegrino says it will set Domain up to deal with "what lies ahead" with the COVID-19 pandemic, but also positions employees to participate as "owners" as listings return.