Problem
According to Professor Charlie Kurth using progressive furloughs for all employees are a more fair way for universities to address financial challenges arising from COVID-19 than laying off non-essential workers whose services are not needed.
a) Assuming a university does implement progressive furloughs, what are some ways to determine appropriate differences in payroll reductions between different jobs in the job hierarchy (e.g., Are cuts or furloughs of, for example, 20% for president and deans, 10% for football coach, and 5% for other staff and faculty reasonable? Could the concept of internal consistency be applied here? Why or why not?
b) What are some other approaches for determining these progressive percentages that might be better?