University President Took A $90K Pay Cut To Pay Employees More

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This story will restore your faith in mankind. This has nothing to do with technology but it is definitely worth sharing. :cool:

Raymond Burse, interim president of Kentucky State University, has given up more than $90,000 of his salary so university workers earning minimum wage could have their earnings increased to $10.25 an hour.
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He's still making 250k a year. It's the first time I've seen trickle down work though. That's something at least.
 
This isn't trickle down. The concept of trickle down is that the rich will spend more money causing the generation of more jobs, but the reality is that they just horde the extra money. This guy is already retired and is at this position temporarily.
 
Yes but i don't see other CEO/presidents volunteering 26% of their salary to help the minimum wage workers make a bit more.
 
When you think about it, $90K divided by a bunch of other employees, it doesn't go very far.
 
And let's be honest, $250k/yr is not a whole lot of money in the grand scheme of things, at least compared to the CEO salaries of many large companies.
 
xorbe said:
When you think about it, $90K divided by a bunch of other employees, it doesn't go very far.
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If you do the math, it doesn't look like this went to a whole lot of people. Assuming 2,087 hours in a year, and they were currently making at least $7.25 but less than $10.25. Lets just split the difference and say the average is $8.75. That's an average of $1.50 per hour increase, or $3,130.50 per employee per year. That $90k will pay for just under 29 employees to receive the raise. It's not a lot, but making a difference in the lives of 29 people because 1 person made a sacrifice is huge. Props to him, and I wish more people would do that. Imagine a CEO who makes millions per year doing the same thing. It wouldn't really make a damn bit of difference in the CEO's lifestyle considering a lot of those people just hoard whatever extra money they get and don't spend it.
 
Wow, if only all CEO and equivalent positions would do what he did.
At the U I used to work for, all the president did was increase costs of students' tuition, then gave himself a $200k raise.

What this guy did was very decent.
 
This put a smile on my face this morning. Hopefully when I'm in the twilight of my career I'll be in a position to do something similar.
 
satsunada said:
He's still making 250k a year. It's the first time I've seen trickle down work though. That's something at least.
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Trickle down economics involves rich people spending money, not salary adjustments that are more in tune with someone's actual contribution.

Presidents and board members and the like are very important to the company, and should be making more than their average employee. The problem we have lately is not that concept, but how rediculously out of whack their contribution/compensation packages have become, to where they are making seventy times the average employee. That's nonsense, and there would be no shortage of people competing for high ranking positions in the company if it were somehow capped at 5 times the salary of the average employee.

So that's the real problem, as Juan working on the hedges in front of the building shouldn't be making under minimum wage since he's hired illegal through a contractor anymore than Mr. McBigguns on the 30th floor should be making $5 million in bonus earnings alone... its not that he isn't so much more valuable, but that its bullshit to concentrate so many resources on one individual.

The biggest douchebag of them all is that Indian guy who built his "house" (its the size of a business building designed to house thousands of employees) above the slums:
Ambani-460_1739069c.jpg


The solution when it gets too far out of whack is simple, the vast majority of people simply realize that they outnumber the tiny minority rewarding themselves with all the wealth, and simply behead them. But then it usually goes overboard and you end up with communism or social welfare where everyone ends up being poor as work ethic for the average man is destroyed.

Somehow we have to find the balance again where a general makes more than a captain makes more than a private, but the general isn't emperor of the world rich while the private is living on rations.
 
xorbe said:
When you think about it, $90K divided by a bunch of other employees, it doesn't go very far.
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still, he couldve taken a few vacations, or bought a new sports car. Instead, he gave people a nice pay raise (a couple bucks extra an hour is a lot when you are used to making $8)
 
Red Falcon said:
At the U I used to work for, all the president did was increase costs of students' tuition, then gave himself a $200k raise.

What this guy did was very decent.
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Our state's university system raises tuition at the maximum allowable by law, year in, year out. The system is sitting on over 600million in cash.

And yet, nobody here is feeling guilty about fleecing young adults and giving anything back. It doesn't really matter what the circumstances around this guy giving back $90k, he did it and that's what counts.
 
Not everyone can go to college give the school money and get no job in return.
 
mnewxcv said:
still, he couldve taken a few vacations, or bought a new sports car. Instead, he gave people a nice pay raise (a couple bucks extra an hour is a lot when you are used to making $8)
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But why should we even view this as charity?

The better question is, why was his salary high enough to begin with that he can shrug off $90K? And what about tuition, that money is coming from students, so are they paying too much. Some of the most overpaid school employees as well aren't professors and the like, but FOOTBALL coaches (many make over $3 million a year, and never have to pay for shit)... da fug is up with that?

So really what bothers me just as much as the situation to begin with, is that its seen as a "charity" to reward himself with a less fantastical salary, when really we should have been demanding this with proper accountability for it to begin with long ago, especially if they are partially state funded.

It kind of reminds me of the rich Roman aristocracy that would throw loaves of bread at the plebs and expect to be praised for it, when really the plebs that made Rome what it was should have been the ones asking "why the fuck are you getting so rich off of our work that you can afford to ride around in pomp throwing bread away in the first place"?
 
Ducman69 said:
But why should we even view this as charity?

The better question is, why was his salary high enough to begin with that he can shrug off $90K? And what about tuition, that money is coming from students, so are they paying too much. Some of the most overpaid school employees as well aren't professors and the like, but FOOTBALL coaches (many make over $3 million a year, and never have to pay for shit)... da fug is up with that?

So really what bothers me just as much as the situation to begin with, is that its seen as a "charity" to reward himself with a less fantastical salary, when really we should have been demanding this with proper accountability for it to begin with long ago, especially if they are partially state funded.

It kind of reminds me of the rich Roman aristocracy that would throw loaves of bread at the plebs and expect to be praised for it, when really the plebs that made Rome what it was should have been the ones asking "why the fuck are you getting so rich off of our work that you can afford to ride around in pomp throwing bread away in the first place"?
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OK Chairman Mao.


:D
 
Ducman69 said:
But why should we even view this as charity?

The better question is, why was his salary high enough to begin with that he can shrug off $90K? And what about tuition, that money is coming from students, so are they paying too much. Some of the most overpaid school employees as well aren't professors and the like, but FOOTBALL coaches (many make over $3 million a year, and never have to pay for shit)... da fug is up with that?

So really what bothers me just as much as the situation to begin with, is that its seen as a "charity" to reward himself with a less fantastical salary, when really we should have been demanding this with proper accountability for it to begin with long ago, especially if they are partially state funded.

It kind of reminds me of the rich Roman aristocracy that would throw loaves of bread at the plebs and expect to be praised for it, when really the plebs that made Rome what it was should have been the ones asking "why the fuck are you getting so rich off of our work that you can afford to ride around in pomp throwing bread away in the first place"?
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Because that's what we pay for. Football coaches make ridiculous money because people pay insane money to watch football. University presidents make a ridiculous amount of money because people pay for their kids to go to that college instead of the cheaper alternative (and there are MANY cheaper alternatives), or don't send them to college at all (which is an option).

Nobody is being forced to watch football or go to college.
 
Props to Raymond Burse. I know there isn't one person in this fortune 500 company that would take a pay cut to help anyone. They are so focused on cutting costs (to raise profit margins), they've trimmed the fat, cut off 80% of the meat, and are close to cutting into the bone. No one I know has even got a pay raise in the past 4 years... I really wonder how much longer this place can carry on. My guess is until it's all moved to India :D
 
capitalism is the root cause of the problem, some may jump in and say I am a communist, not quite no, just I feel unregulated capitalism is too far.

e.g. many many companies will routinely take measures to reduce their tax costs, meaning they putting less back into the system, they do this because (at least in the uk), their duty is to shareholders first, and is actually a legal requirement to work for the shareholders. Since CEO's have control of such companies, it is effective use of resources to motivate that one person to improve profits, as sad and horrible as it sounds its the truth. This tactic goes all the way down, in a retail store e..g. full of depresed employees, start offering the manager his own bonuses etc. for hitting targets, and he will do the whipping of the workers, firing etc. whats needed to hit those targets whilst the rest earn min wage. Its taking advantage of modern human nature which is to look after #1. The manager wont care about who he manages because he gets paid for it.

Social welfare is not a bad thing, and I dont like how society has changed.

In the past in the uk welfare didnt exist it was called social security. A system that everyone with the means pays into, and in times of need the system helps you out, A great system. Fast firward t today however and we have copied the usa in calling it "welfare" to make it sound like its charity handouts and those that claim it should be ashamed of themselves, I am disgusted with fellow humans for bringing this stigma about. Now days too many people just think of #1 and all they care about is less taxes and trying to get as much out of the system for themselves as possible, pure greed. The original mottos have been forgotten. e.g. our current government is trying to give rich people state benefit's because they say its "fair", they forgot that the original intention was not to hand out to the rich, simply because they dont need it. So now days people try to calculate what they get out of the system vs what they pay in. Wrong way of looking at it :(
 
You guys can complain about how it didn't make much difference.... but really... who cares? It's definitely the principle that counts in this case(IMO of course).

I've never in my life heard of a "manager" or "boss" in any job take a cut to give his employees a raise. Not to say it doesn't happen... it's just something that I've never heard and it's commendable.
 
Ducman69 said:
The solution when it gets too far out of whack is simple, the vast majority of people simply realize that they outnumber the tiny minority rewarding themselves with all the wealth, and simply behead them. But then it usually goes overboard and you end up with communism or social welfare where everyone ends up being poor as work ethic for the average man is destroyed.
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Right, we wouldn't want to start beheading people and have it "go overboard"...
 
Capitalism will only work long term if people have morals and a higher view of society. As we see with CEOs making 1000's of times what most of their employees make, that isn't happening. When the viewpoint is, I will extract as much as possible and screw over as many people as possible, fuck everyone else...eventually the system will stagnate, and those getting fucked over won't play nice and just roll over anymore.
 
TwistedAegis said:
Capitalism will only work long term if people have morals and a higher view of society. As we see with CEOs making 1000's of times what most of their employees make, that isn't happening. When the viewpoint is, I will extract as much as possible and screw over as many people as possible, fuck everyone else...eventually the system will stagnate, and those getting fucked over won't play nice and just roll over anymore.
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Luckily, many of the top billionaires have morals and a higher view of society.


That said, we should probably rethink our tertiary education system and the costs associated with it.
 
Retired millionaire with spectacular retirement bennies into infinity gives up 90k - and in a way that makes very inefficient use of 90k. He should have made a more precise donation instead of opting for the action that brought the most PR. In that case he made a very efficnet use of 90k. I'm not impressed even a lil bit
 
The entire management team took a 10% pay cut at the company I am interning with. This was in order to make sure that even if the company has a bad year we still end up in a decent spot. I wish the college I am attending would do the same thing considering they just fired the last president because he mismanaged the school into a 2mil budget shortfall this year and got a big payout to stop coming to work basically.

I would like to see this more often to ensure that bottom end employees don't get screwed over just so the top dog can continue to be paid $250k + while watching the company/school go under.
 
Why does he hate America? Why would we allow a man who hates America to run a school?

What a filthy communist.
 
LeninGHOLA said:
Luckily, many of the top billionaires have morals and a higher view of society.
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If it comes to the poor going after the rich - they're all the same. Doesn't matter if they were good guys or not. Those holding the pitchforks don't care about logic. They care about the heads rolling.

I think it's great this guy is doing it. When I was working minimum wage, getting a $2.00 increase would have been awesome. Hell, it'd be awesome right now, and I'm making quite a bit more than minimum wage. Kudos to this guy. People complain about minimum wage, he has the ability to fix it for his employees and he does. That's a good guy...
 
roma said:
Retired millionaire with spectacular retirement bennies into infinity gives up 90k - and in a way that makes very inefficient use of 90k. He should have made a more precise donation instead of opting for the action that brought the most PR. In that case he made a very efficnet use of 90k. I'm not impressed even a lil bit
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Inefficient?

Burse's pay cut will increase the salaries of 24 KSU employees, some of whom were making as littles as $7.25 an hour, to $10.25 an hour,
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Seems very well targeted to me, as he's helping a few people at the very bottom
 
TwistedAegis said:
Capitalism will only work long term if people have morals and a higher view of society. As we see with CEOs making 1000's of times what most of their employees make, that isn't happening. When the viewpoint is, I will extract as much as possible and screw over as many people as possible, fuck everyone else...eventually the system will stagnate, and those getting fucked over won't play nice and just roll over anymore.
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It is not from the benevolence of the butcher, the brewer, or the baker that we expect our dinner, but from their regard to their own interest.

Adam Smith
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The reason why capitalism if the worst form of economics except all is that at its core charity isn't what it is about, that's just not how humans are wired. That's not to say that humans can't be charitable, but even in the case of charity, the self-interested personal or organization sees the self-benefit of being a benefactor.
 
heatlesssun said:
The reason why capitalism if the worst form of economics except all is that at its core charity isn't what it is about, that's just not how humans are wired. That's not to say that humans can't be charitable, but even in the case of charity, the self-interested personal or organization sees the self-benefit of being a benefactor.
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What can change the nature of a man?
 
SRTie4k said:
Death.
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Or the acceptance of death. I hear about greedy people that lied, cheated, stole their way to the top. Once they got old and/or sick, they started to give money away. Not for recognition, but because they knew life was short and valuable. It's definitely not everyone that does this, of course.

If I were a millionaire/billionaire, I'd be donating money and efforts into things. All under a different name or anonymously. I can only imagine how many people would come out of the woodwork wanting donations and help...
 
SRTie4k said:
Because that's what we pay for. Football coaches make ridiculous money because people pay insane money to watch football. University presidents make a ridiculous amount of money because people pay for their kids to go to that college instead of the cheaper alternative (and there are MANY cheaper alternatives), or don't send them to college at all (which is an option).

Nobody is being forced to watch football or go to college.
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That's a pretty simplistic view of the situation. Football coaches and university presidents are paid disproportionately compared to their role in the enterprise. Faculty haven't seen the huge pay raises that administrators have. In fact, faculty pay has probably gone down due to the hiring spree of poorly paid adjunct professors.

Football is even more laughable. The NCAA and coaches make bank and all the players get is housing and the "great value" of their education.
 
And I'm not even big on charities with some exceptions. Natural disasters, all the poor dogs and cats in the neighborhood and volunteers that help for that, and so forth, those IMO deserve and get charity from me every year. But the wage disparity issue isn't even ABOUT charity, unless you buy into the idea that a CEO should have a compensation package where he's making 70 times the average company employee.

This is more about fixing the marriage between contribution and compensation. The guy fixing the elevators and lights in the building and what may not be rocket science, but it is hard work and needs to be done and is a career position and should be awarded accordingly. And some guy on the board may be very talented and gives great value to the company, but at some point you have to say "fuck you" and accept that say $750K is still a shit ton of cash for that job, and not be handing out millions upon millions to them while the engineers working downstairs long nights creating the projects are struggling to make payments on their Camry.

So its not about charity at all, but about fair wages for fair work.
 
Ducman69 said:
And I'm not even big on charities with some exceptions. Natural disasters, all the poor dogs and cats in the neighborhood and volunteers that help for that, and so forth, those IMO deserve and get charity from me every year. But the wage disparity issue isn't even ABOUT charity, unless you buy into the idea that a CEO should have a compensation package where he's making 70 times the average company employee.

This is more about fixing the marriage between contribution and compensation. The guy fixing the elevators and lights in the building and what may not be rocket science, but it is hard work and needs to be done and is a career position and should be awarded accordingly. And some guy on the board may be very talented and gives great value to the company, but at some point you have to say "fuck you" and accept that say $750K is still a shit ton of cash for that job, and not be handing out millions upon millions to them while the engineers working downstairs long nights creating the projects are struggling to make payments on their Camry.

So its not about charity at all, but about fair wages for fair work.
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If you are an engineer and are having trouble paying for a Camry then you're doing it wrong or did it wrong at some point.
 
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