Thousands of companies around the country have had to make difficult cutbacks due to economic ramifications of the Coronavirus pandemic and as of May 8, the NFL will be one of those companies. In a league memo obtained by CBSSports.com, NFL commissioner Roger Goodell revealed that the league would be cutting pay for multiple employees and furloughing others. According to ESPN.com, Goodell will also be taking a substantial pay cut as the commissioner has volunteered to have his salary reduced down to nothing. Goodell currently makes an estimated $40 million per year, but will be pulling in zero dollars while the pay cuts are going on.
"The economic consequences for our country have been substantial, and we have taken a series of steps in response to their impact on the NFL," Goodell wrote in the memo. "Within our own offices, we have limited new hiring, frozen salaries for many employees, and undertaken a thorough, organization-wide review to identify and implement cost reductions. During this time, one goal has been to maintain pay and benefits for our workforce for as long as possible."
With the NFL's temporary pay cuts, some employees see their salary reduced by up to 15% while other employees will only see their salary reduced by 5%.
The NFL is implementing tiered, temporary paycuts for its employees making more than 100k/year.
— Jonathan Jones (@jjones9) April 29, 2020
15% for EVPs
12% for SVPs
10% for VPs
7% for directors
5% for managers
No one making less than 100k/year will see their pay cut. Unclear when full pay will be restored.
The cuts will go into effect on May 22 with the league hoping to have everyone back to their normal salary at some point in the next few months. Although pay is being reduced almost across the board, the memo did state that no employee making less than $100,000 would see their pay reduced. Also, no employee making more than $100,000 will have their pay cut to under $100,000.
As for the furloughs, that will be happening to league employees who are "unable to substantially perform their duties from home and/or whose current workload has been significantly reduced." Those will go into effect on May 8.
"We hope that business conditions will improve and permit salaries to be returned to their current levels, although we do not know when that will be possible," Goodell wrote in the memo.
Despite the cutbacks, the NFL is still hoping to play the 2020 regular season as planned. The league even announced on Wednesday that the schedule is still on track to be released by May 9.
