Fleck says he's 1 of 200 senior leaders at the University of Minnesota taking a 1-week pay cut

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Totally get it, maybe more cuts like this to come. But it would be nice for the university to throw him a bone right now (not monetary) and acknowledge what an outstanding job he and his staff are doing given the circumstances. I think you could make the argument that they are the top recruiting staff in the country over the last month.
 

LakerFan said:
Totally get it, maybe more cuts like this to come. But it would be nice for the university to throw him a bone right now (not monetary) and acknowledge what an outstanding job he and his staff are doing given the circumstances. I think you could make the argument that they are the top recruiting staff in the country over the last month.
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And that’s not a hard argument to make... I assume he is doing so voluntarily as a way of pitching in and taking one for the team though...
 

1 week seems like an odd choice but certainly glad they are taking a pay cut. I know many people that are on one month or more pay cuts or furloughed.
 

PoockItInfor6 said:
And that’s not a hard argument to make... I assume he is doing so voluntarily as a way of pitching in and taking one for the team though...
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The optics of him taking the pay cut and being able to advertise it is worth more than the money.

especially when a 9+ win season next year likely nets him a raise and an extension
 


1 week is roughly 2% of salary. Back in 2008-2009 the company I worked for asked for senior leaders to do the same. It was labeled "voluntary" but it was pretty obvious that it was expected.
 

DarrenTheGreek said:
1 week is roughly 2% of salary. Back in 2008-2009 the company I worked for asked for senior leaders to do the same. It was labeled "voluntary" but it was pretty obvious that it was expected.
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Back then my wife had to take a permanent 10% pay cut. My brother who is an exec at a large company just had to take a 20% pay cut for at least 2 months.

Things could be worse for PJ considering the financial hit the athletic department may take.
 

The pay cut comes as a one-week furlough. That means for that week, PJ is not allowed to work. My hunch is he will take that one-week furlough closer to June. Right now, he is working hard.

To put the fulrough into perspective (I think my math is right here), his one-week pay cut (pre-tax) will be roughly $75k. That's more than many make in a year (pre-tax).
 

tjgopher said:
The pay cut comes as a one-week furlough. That means for that week, PJ is not allowed to work. My hunch is he will take that one-week furlough closer to June. Right now, he is working hard.

To put the fulrough into perspective (I think my math is right here), his one-week pay cut (pre-tax) will be roughly $75k. That's more than many make in a year (pre-tax).
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I'm not sure what number you used for your calculations, but using his salary of $4.6M, a one-week furlough works out to $88,461.54 in lost salary.
 



Word said:
Back then my wife had to take a permanent 10% pay cut. My brother who is an exec at a large company just had to take a 20% pay cut for at least 2 months.

Things could be worse for PJ considering the financial hit the athletic department may take.
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I worked at a company where everyone took at 10% pay cut, executives 20%.

Then when the company returned to profitlbity everyone's pay was restored to the usual levels.

The quarter after a profitable quarter we lost money and quietly on the conference call they noted it was due to extra compensation to executives who got paid back what they had lost ... with interest. (nobody else got that ...)
 

Well of course Minnesota is leading the charge to be the first one to furlough its head football coach all while having the greatest recruiting week in the programs history! I get it, but will the rest of the Big follow?
 

dpodoll68 said:
I'm not sure what number you used for your calculations, but using his salary of $4.6M, a one-week furlough works out to $88,461.54 in lost salary.
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Dude! Now that's the dpodoll68 we know and love! Down to the penny.
I should have added....good to have you back.
 
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dpodoll68 said:
I'm not sure what number you used for your calculations, but using his salary of $4.6M, a one-week furlough works out to $88,461.54 in lost salary.
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As long as PJ is on board with it, then great! That’s commendable and as someone whose wife works for the U... I appreciate his sacrifice!

If it was mandated and it annoys him... that’d be about as short sighted of a move as anybody ever makes.

I presume we are in situation #1 here, so I’m just going to say “Thank you PJ!”
 



tjgopher said:
The pay cut comes as a one-week furlough. That means for that week, PJ is not allowed to work. My hunch is he will take that one-week furlough closer to June. Right now, he is working hard.

To put the fulrough into perspective (I think my math is right here), his one-week pay cut (pre-tax) will be roughly $75k. That's more than many make in a year (pre-tax).
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Umm, no way pj isn't working. You think he punches a clock??
 


UpAndUnder43 said:
This. He absolutely is working through whatever week he takes his furlough. Even if not being compensated for it.
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I have family who work at the U who are apart of this furlough. They are merely not getting paid for a week's worth of work rather than taking a week off.
 

noamfromm said:
I have family who work at the U who are apart of this furlough. They are merely not getting paid for a week's worth of work rather than taking a week off.
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So they are working? That doesn't sound right at all.
 

dpodoll68 said:
I'm not sure what number you used for your calculations, but using his salary of $4.6M, a one-week furlough works out to $88,461.54 in lost salary.
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I was guessing his salary at $3.75m. I couldn't remember and didn't feel like Googling. That's why I said roughly. Appreciate the exact the figure.
 

Gopher Ally said:
Well of course Minnesota is leading the charge to be the first one to furlough its head football coach all while having the greatest recruiting week in the programs history! I get it, but will the rest of the Big follow?
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I wouldn't say Minnesota is leading the charge. Louisville and Boise State have already issued furloughs.

Others have just cut their pay period. Iowa State was the first, followed by Syracuse, Missouri, Oregon State, Washington State, Colorado, Wake Forest and others have all cut coaches pay. And, many more will follow, and many have already done it with no reporting on it yet.
 
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PoockItInfor6 said:
As long as PJ is on board with it, then great! That’s commendable and as someone whose wife works for the U... I appreciate his sacrifice!

If it was mandated and it annoys him... that’d be about as short sighted of a move as anybody ever makes.

I presume we are in situation #1 here, so I’m just going to say “Thank you PJ!”
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Here was the news story:

Minnesota football coach P.J. Fleck is taking an unpaid week, along with about 200 other leaders in the university system in response to the budget crunch caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.

President Joan Gabel announced the furloughs earlier this month.

Fleck confirmed Thursday on a video conference call with reporters he’s taking part, saying he and his wife, Heather, “immediately jumped on it.”

“Anything we can do to continue to help,” Fleck said.
 

Anything to keep the Gophers athletics and Athletic Village support staff employed. These folks are the hidden backbone that make the Athletic Department work.
 

noamfromm said:
I have family who work at the U who are apart of this furlough. They are merely not getting paid for a week's worth of work rather than taking a week off.
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It's basically not really a furlough. It's a temporary pay cut.
It sucks but the alternative is to start laying people off, which many employers are doing.
 

It’s a pretty minimal move, a 2% pay cut. Some health systems are cutting executive level pay 20, 30% or more. If the U wanted to show a real effect they would’ve cut at least 10% from all the top paid executive level staff (especially coaches).
 

Salaried workers at my company are all taking 7% pay cuts til at least the end of the year. I thought, "Hey, I can live with that." Two days later, they told me I'd be furloughed from May 4-End of August! I might be spending much of the next 4 months at the family cabin near Brainerd fishing, golfing, lying in the sun and drinking beer.
 


Catechol said:
It’s a pretty minimal move, a 2% pay cut. Some health systems are cutting executive level pay 20, 30% or more. If the U wanted to show a real effect they would’ve cut at least 10% from all the top paid executive level staff (especially coaches).
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The U president and others senior leadership have taken temporary 10% cut. I'm sure we'll see more action
 

UpAndUnder43 said:
So they are working? That doesn't sound right at all.
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Right now it's just higher ups. They'll probably roll it out to all employees who will have to take one week unpaid off.
 

Catechol said:
It’s a pretty minimal move, a 2% pay cut. Some health systems are cutting executive level pay 20, 30% or more. If the U wanted to show a real effect they would’ve cut at least 10% from all the top paid executive level staff (especially coaches).
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It's more like a 25% cut in next months salary overhead, that's how a business would look at it. They aren't saying this is the end of the cuts, very likely if things don't improve there will be other unpaid weeks coming in the future.

A 2% reduction in salary accross the board would look the same by the end of the year but not help as much immediately.
 

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