The news of their sacrifices, which was reported by Media Guardian today, coincides with the National Union of Journalist's (NUJ) campaign against GMG's implementation of staff cuts across its regional newspapers.
The NUJ took out a full-page ad in The Guardian this week, accusing GMG of "devastating staff cuts" at its Manchester Evening News and Surrey & Berkshire Media local newspaper groups.
The ad claimed that the cuts were being made to support The Guardian, "which is losing many millions but still paying executive bonuses".
According to the Media Guardian report, Rusbridger and McCall both informed the NUJ of their decisions last month.
Rusbridger is understood to be taking a 10% pay cut this year. It is not known what his 2008-9 salary is but he was paid a basic salary of £385,000 in 2007-8. He does not take part in GMG's bonus scheme.
The bonus McCall has passed up relates to the achievement of her personal objectives in GMG's 2008-9 financial year. This finished at the end of March although the results have not been published.
It is possible that personal achievement bonuses may still be taken by other GMG executives, such as Guardian News & Media chief Tim Brooks.
GMG decided in February it would not pay McCall and other executives separate financial performance bonuses for 2008-9 and applied a pay freeze across the whole company.
A statement from a GMG spokesman said that Rusbridger and McCall had felt it was appropriate to inform the NUJ chapels of their decision and described information about other managers' bonuses as "an individual, private matter".
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