UPDATE: Would you volunteer to take less money to save jobs?

Posted at 12:13 AM on June 23, 2009 by Paul Tosto
Filed under: Jobs & unemployment

Hennepin County's intriguing experiment in voluntary hour cuts has been extended through the end of this week.

As we posted earlier, the county asked workers to voluntarily cut hours (and pay) so the organization can try to meet budget goals and avoid mandatory cuts. June 5 was the original deadline for applications to take Special Leave Without Pay.

A county spokeswoman today said the deadline was pushed back to June 26.

This effort interests me for a few reasons.

Several of our Public Insight Network sources are Hennepin County employees taking the voluntary cuts. The idea of shared sacrifice in such a huge organization, in such a crappy economy, is pretty compelling.

I'm really interested to see if it will deliver the hoped-for $4.5 million savings and stave off mandatory hour cuts.

Check out the map below for insights from people about the current job market. Then tell us what you're seeing or if you know of a situation where people are volunteering to get paid less to keep jobs.

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