Pandemic forces Penn State athletics to reduce salaries of department employees
The pandemic is expected to sharply cut into revenues that reached more than $164 million in fiscal year 2019, with football earning slightly more than $100 million.
Penn State’s Department of Intercollegiate Athletics has confirmed that it will reduce salaries of its employees for the 2020-21 fiscal year, a result of an expected drop in revenue from the coronavirus pandemic.
The Centre Daily Times first reported the reductions Monday night, and quoted sources as saying the cuts would range from 5% for employees making $150,000 or less annually to 10% for those earning more than $150,000.
The athletic department said in a statement that it had made the decision based on an analysis of its “budget and revenue shortfalls for the 2020-21 academic year due to the COVID-19 pandemic.”
“As a result of our analysis and based on our current financial circumstances, we made the difficult decision to make reductions in salaries across the department for this fiscal year,” the department said. “The savings generated by these reductions, as well as decreases in our operation budgets, will assist in minimizing our currently anticipated revenue shortfall for this year.”
The department declined comment on the scope of the reductions.
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Employees received word of the pay cuts in a July 22 Zoom call, according to the Daily Times report. The department faces contractual issues with some coaches in having a percentage of their salary deducted, and would ask them to take a voluntary cut, the paper reported.
Head football coach James Franklin is the department’s highest-paid employee, scheduled to make $5.4 million this season, but it is unknown whether he has agreed to a voluntary reduction.