Is Charlie Bolden Going to Take a Pay Cut?
Obama to take pay cut to draw attention to plight of federal workers facing furloughs, Washington Post
“President Obama plans to give up 5 percent of his salary this year to draw attention to the financial sacrifice of more than 1 million federal employees who will be furloughed by automatic spending cuts starting in less than three weeks. … Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel said he will return a portion of his salary to share the pain with 750,000 Defense civilians who will lose 14 days of pay this fiscal year. The Environmental Protection Agency announced that Acting Administrator Bob Perciasepe decided — before the president’s action became public — to donate 32 hours of pay to a fund that provides emergency loans, child-care subsidies and other financial help to federal workers. And the Department of Housing and Urban Development disclosed that Secretary Shaun Donovan and eight politically appointed deputies will donate seven days worth of salaries. Their checks will either go back to the Treasury or to a nonprofit housing group that helps low-income Americans.”
Keith’s note: Is Charlie Bolden going to take a pay cut?
5% ? … nice gesture, but compared to the guys giving up 100% ???
Nobody is giving up 100%, unless they are being laid off for the balance of the year. No agency is doing that, that I am aware of. Affected agencies furloughing people for 1-2 days/month for spme/all of the balance of the FY.
Yea, I just don’t get this – if the money they were giving up went directly to people being laid off, then that would be great. But that is not what is happening. It simply goes to the Treasury. But if the rest of the Administration is doing this then Bolden should make a similar gesture.
Is the rest of the Administration do this? Charlie is lucky to have someone who’s willing to help him read his moral compass.
“if the rest of the Administration is doing this then Bolden should make a similar gesture”
I agree Keith but ONLY if the rest of the adminstration does will I hold Charlie responsible for it. Right now, I see some administration people offering it up as a suck up effort to look good. Charlie is doing what he can with what he has been given.
The military service secretaries are donating their cut to charities that benefit military members and their families.
If & when NASA employees are furloughed, he should. But as of now, we are being told no one is getting furloughed.
If the sequester continues contractor employees will be laid off and civil servants will be furloughed. There is no way that NASA can avoid this.It is no different in this regard than any other Federal agency. Plans are already being worked as what personnel changes are needed and when they will be needed. For NASA not to be doing so would be irresponsible.
Which is why Obama et al should be spending more time trying to stop the sequester as opposed to spending time discussing transparent political gestures. I’d rather he and Congress take a 5% pay increase but do their jobs.
I know this isn’t the place to bring up politics (and, in fact, I voted for the guy twice), but we’re past “sharing the burden” by either not traveling or taking a pay cut. Just fix the problem.
Why should Bolden be the only NASA employee to have a pay cut? Hagel is sharing pain with his troops, which makes sense because that pain is due to in part to his choices. Bolden successfully protected the pay of the NASA workforce. Bolden giving up pay would say what? That we should all volunteer to give up pay?
Yes, there are people funded by NASA who will suffer as programs and grants are cut back. But those folks know they are in a soft position with no promise of stability. I don’t expect grant officers to reduce their pay when they can’t fund all the grants they’d like.
RIFs are coming, only question is when
JPL engineers earning $265,000 per year definitely need a pay cut.
Frankly all of NASA needs a salary/benefit reality check.Their salaries should mirror their value in the open market.
All of their salaries should be reduced to the point that they freely want to find another job. Once they have a job offer in hand……Then We Will Know their Real Market Value.
NASA SHOULD NOT MEAN “NEED ANOTHER SALARY AUGMENTATION”. They need to get back to the love of science, not salary.