Yes, but the managements sole responsibility is to make money for the shareholders. Not for the employees.
That money is owed to employees by shareholders.
Obviously the trick is to make sure your friends (the employees) get paid first by settling that debt before declaring. I can see how that might be legally troublesome. But it's the vendors, lenders, etc. that should be complaining, not shareholders.
http://www.businesspundit.com/good-work-environment-higher-r...
I don't know if the data is significant, but it's certainly worth nothing.
To clarify: I think it's really a sad state of affairs when the people who commit most of their waking hours to a company and depend on their salary for day-to-day living aren't the ones who are paid first.
Everyone knows: Bros (employees) before 'hos (shareholders).