PALO ALTO, Calif. (CNN/Money) - In a sign of new creativity in cost-cutting, Abbott Laboratories has identified a novel source to finance the launch of a new drug: Its employees.

Abbott has a lot on its plate at the moment. It's expanding its manufacturing capabilities, pumping more money into R&D and marketing of its products, and, like everyone else, is facing a brutal global economy.

To help pay for all these things, the company told employees last week that their annual merit salary increase, which is awarded on each employee's anniversary with the company, will be put off by six months. That means that someone who joined Abbott in May will have their salary frozen until November, though if all goes well they'd get another raise the following May. (Abbott reported earnings on Thursday before the bell -- see the results.)

In a weird turn of events for Abbott's workers, the news that they're going to have to get by without a raise actually follows some good news for the company. The Food & Drug Administration approved the drug Humira for commercial use in late December. Humira, which fights rheumatoid arthritis, is hoped to be Abbott's next billion-dollar blockbuster. But approval came earlier than expected, leading to Abbott's having to ramp up sooner than it thought, and to the pay-freeze decision as well.

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On the first business day of the year, executives at the suburban Chicago company said the unexpectedly early Humira expenditures would hurt 2003 profits. Analysts shaved about 3 cents per share – or about $47 million – from Abbott's 2003 earnings forecast.

Assuming the average Abbott employee makes about $50,000 per year and that, according to an Abbott spokesman, each would have received a pay increase of about twice the rate of inflation, or 3.7 percent, Abbott is "saving" only a little more than $30 million with the rolling salary freezes, far less than the $100 million-to-$200 million analysts interviewed by Dow Jones say the drug launch will cost.

Not surprisingly, it's altogether likely the pain won't be shared on this one. Abbott CEO Miles White's salary in 2001 of $1.4 million was about 25 percent of his total compensation. The rest was his bonus ($2.1 million), a restricted-stock award worth about $2.1 million and assorted other compensation, according to the company's 2002 proxy statement. The pay-increase delays affect only salaries, not bonuses, and so presumably White and other senior executives won't suffer too much. After all, only the rank and file rely on salaries to pay the bills.

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Adam Lashinsky is a senior writer for Fortune magazine. Send e-mail to Adam at lashinskysbottomline@yahoo.com.

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