In a plan to save UW nearly three million dollars, Wisconsin athletics is having over twenty of the top-paid athletics employees take pay cuts including Wisconsin Athletic Director Barry Alvarez, football Head Coach Paul Chryst, and basketball head coach Greg Gard.
In a release earlier today, Wisconsin athletics said that work hours for the employees will not change despite the cut. The cut comes as a plan to save the UW much needed money in this uncertain pandemic. Alvarez spoke to the situation and the plan to cut hours in the release.
“Reducing compensation and work hours is obviously not something I want to see for any of our Badger Athletics family,” said Wisconsin’s AD. “But we are facing the same financial challenges that other organizations across the country are. We are working hard to minimize the impact on our employees while responding to the realities of the situation created by the pandemic.
“I greatly appreciate our highest earners’ willingness to consider voluntarily accepting a temporary reduction in pay, as well as the rest of our staff who are sharing in this exercise by reducing their hours to help us navigate our way through these unprecedented times,” said Alvarez.
The specifics of the pay reduction is a 15% decrease for each of the top-25 earners in the department. The pay reduction plan will last through July 25.