Pay cuts
I've been amazed, but probably shouldn't have been, at the speed at which corporate America has seized upon the idea of pay cuts for rank and file employees.
This is new in my lifetime. I've lived through a number of economic recessions in my 55 years, and can't remember a previous time when pay cuts have come on almost a daily basis. To be honest, I can't remember any previous pay cuts being announced at all. I'm sure they happened, but infrequently and with little or no publicity.
I suspect there are a couple of reasons for this. One of the big ones is the decline of union membership in America. Workers covered by union contracts are protected against pay cuts. The Patriot-News, where I formerly was the Newspaper Guild president, wouldn't have been able to impose 10 furlough days--an effective pay cut--on the newsroom if they still had a union contract. Would not have happened. Unions protect both their own members and, at one time, deterred corporations without them from doing what they could to their workers for fear of losing their "union-free" status. God forbid.
Unfortunately, the genie is out of the bottle. Corporations now realize they can cut pay for any reason or no reason and get away with it. Need to make your quarterly numbers to please the corporate overlords in Texas? Cut pay! Weep crocodile tears about how this step was taken with oh-so great reluctance. Reap a bigger bonus at the end of the year! Think they won't do this?
There was a time when most American businesses provided free health insurance to their employees. No more. That change happened gradually and was driven by more factors than simple greed. But I've believed for some time that a lot of this was driven by a follow-the-pack mentality. They did it because they could, and because they were unimaginative, not because they absolutely needed to.
Pay cuts are already getting out of hand. If you need an example of greed-driven thinking, consider British Airways (this phenomenon isn't limited to the U.S.), which just asked its employees to not simply take a one-month furlough but to continue working during the furlough! Talk about chutzpah.