Although he only served a matter of months before getting the boot, former American International Group CEO Robert Willumstad is still eligible for a $22 million severance package. But the 63-year-old isn’t taking it, saying he prefers “not to receive severance payments while shareholders and employees have lost considerable value in their AIG shares.”

Will executives of other troubled institutions follow suit? Not likely, says Robert Reich, the former U.S. labor secretary under President Clinton and a professor of public policy at the University of California at Berkeley: “I don’t think anyone should really count on CEOs voluntarily forgoing anything. Why should we accept a sudden conversion on the part of America’s CEOs, especially financial executives who have been raking in so much money over the last decade.”

Executives of companies participating in the government bailout might not have a choice in taking a cut, though. Some legislators are pushing to limit how much compensation they receive.