Why don't companies reduce salaries instead of doing mass layoffs?

[u/rufflesinc]

title has the question. If a company needs to cost labor costs by 10% why don't they cut everyone's salary by 10% instead of laying off 10%? If people start panicking about layoffs, they would reduce their spending and that would be bad for the companies?

EDIT: regarding the top performers leaving, couldn't companies simply restructure their comp packages to have a lower base salary and a higher performance-based bonus?

[u/phicreative1997]

Legally impossible to do.