Mainers are taking pay cuts to save jobs (credit, unemployment)

[Submariner]

Maine workers give up pay to save colleagues' jobs - Boston.com (http://www.boston.com/news/local/maine/articles/2009/03/08/maine_workers_give_up_pay_to_save_colleagues_jobs/ - broken link)

All over Maine workers voluntarily give up part of their pay to keep their colleagues from being laid off.

>60% of SAD17 employees agreed to sacrifice income to save seven jobs.

They offered to either take time off without pay, or work but give some money back. Each person decided on an amount, ranging from $2 to $800.

Also U of M decided to freeze wages for 59 senior administrators, saving $300,000. And 37 senior administrators agreed to work up to five days without pay, saving $85,000.

L.L. Bean froze wages and has offered early retirement to older workers in an effort to prevent 75 to 100 people from being laid off.

[NorthPoleMarathoner]

Originally Posted by forest beekeeper

Maine workers give up pay to save colleagues' jobs - Boston.com (http://www.boston.com/news/local/maine/articles/2009/03/08/maine_workers_give_up_pay_to_save_colleagues_jobs/ - broken link)

All over Maine workers voluntarily give up part of their pay to keep their colleagues from being laid off.

>60% of SAD17 employees agreed to sacrifice income to save seven jobs.

They offered to either take time off without pay, or work but give some money back. Each person decided on an amount, ranging from $2 to $800.

Also U of M decided to freeze wages for 59 senior administrators, saving $300,000. And 37 senior administrators agreed to work up to five days without pay, saving $85,000.

L.L. Bean froze wages and has offered early retirement to older workers in an effort to prevent 75 to 100 people from being laid off.

This is good. I tell people all the time this is why we should elimnate minimum wage laws.

I believe employers in the Great Depression attempted to cut wages but FDR convinced them to keep wages high, which led to more unemployment.

Less government interference in the workplace = more jobs.

[RHB]

It's happening all over.
Where my sister lives (MD) lowest paid employees (state I believe, could be county) are taking 1 day a month off without paid, middle 2, and upper 3.
At Mohegan Sun, the lowest paid people took a 4% cut, middle 7 % and upper 10%.
I think people are realilzing that they need to do something - now if we could just get the banks to behave as well....

[cebdark]

For me, it just goes to show how out-of-touch mainstream media is with the way people actually conduct themselves in life.

I have the feeling that many people across the country are doing this, but yet the only thing we'll hear about is Sanjaya's (spelling??) hair when he was on American Idol.

People are much smarter and kinder than most "media juggernauts" and the writers of rampant hate email chains give us credit for IMHO.

[Connecticut Pam]

While this is a noble effort on the part of Mainers, I am sure that it is not totally exclusive to Maine only. The economy has been devastated all over the United States. At my husband's work, they have frozen all hiring, no raises and no bonus payments this year. I have a friend who has worked for Stop and Shop for over 20 years and her hours have been cut down to only 16 a week. My son was out of work for almost a year and had to take a job 45 plus miles from work so regardless, he is getting bombed with gas expenses. Another friend who works for a fairly large company had her hours cut from 40 to 32 with the only way to compensate for those hours being using vacation time. I see the acts of random work kindness everywhere with people bowing out of job positions to give the position to perhaps a single Mom or a family person. It is the way we are as Americans...not just Mainers.

[mollysmiles]

Pam, because this is the Maine forum, Forest shared examples of what Mainers are doing. He in no way indicated that this is occurring only in Maine, he just shared what is happening in Maine in the Maine state forum. Once in a while we really try to keep the topics in the Maine forum Maine related!

[JC3]

It's refreshing to see people willing to sacrifice a little to help someone stay employed. When you read how state unions in Mass are not willing to freeze (not take a cut) wages for a year, it makes one feel better knowing there are folks with a conscience still out there.

[ILUVMAINE]

Just another reason why I love the Maine folks!

[cebdark]

Originally Posted by ILUVMAINE

Just another reason why I love the Maine folks!

We are "survivors" without question. I'd venture to say that Mainers seem to think things through more, and are less willing to throw themselves into the latest "fad" or "rage" without digging a little deeper into the possible ramifications of what ends up being the end result. We are also pretty good at helping each other out when the chips are down.

Maybe that's why we sometimes appear stubborn??? I don't know.

I guess in the immortal words of Popeye, "I y'am what I y'am."