Coronavirus Outbreak: Harvard, MIT announce pay cut and salary freeze due to economic fallout of pandemic

The coronavirus pandemic and the subsequent lockdown have taken toll on premier US institutions like Harvard University and Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). Both are implementing a salary freeze and have stopped hiring new faculty. The top leadership of Harvard and MIT are taking pay cuts due to the economic fallout of the pandemic. [caption id=“attachment_655398” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] Representational image. Flickr[/caption] President Lawrence Bacow, Executive Vice President Katherine Lapp and Provost Alan Garber of Harvard University sent a joint letter to the members of the Harvard Community, writing that they expect to see an “increased demand for financial aid as the economic fallout from the pandemic hits family budgets.” The letter said that even though Harvard has entered the crisis in a position of relative financial strength, its resources are already stretched. Bacow, Lapp and Garber are all taking 25 per cent pay cuts individually in light of present circumstances. MIT, too, has issued a similar statement with President L. Rafael Reif writing, “We should expect hard choices.” The institute is taking several steps to “control costs, in a way we hope is sensible, prudent and fair.” MIT has said that they are pausing hiring except for essential personnel and are reworking their FY21 budgets to reduce expenses. The institute’s two most senior officers, president and provost, have decided to take a 20 per cent cut in compensation for the next 12 months. The money saved will go to the support of the MIT Staff Emergency Hardship Fund. The University of Southern California is also reducing the salaries of its senior leadership amid the coronavirus pandemic. According to the letter, the University President will take a 20 per cent pay cut while the provost, senior vice presidents and deans will give up 10 per cent of their salaries.