Clemson President Jim Clements announced Monday he and all athletic employees making more than $400,000 per year will voluntarily take a 10-percent pay cut.

Included in this voluntarily pay cut is Clemson head football coach Dabo Swinney, men’s basketball coach Brad Brownell, women’s basketball coach Amanda Butler and head baseball coach Monte Lee. Athletic director Dan Radakovich will also take a 10-percent voluntary pay cut.

These cuts are voluntary because Clements and 88 employees in Athletics are contractually exempt from the mandatory furlough plan.

After exhaustive study and careful consideration by Clemson University, Clements announced in a press release that the University’s latest step to offset the financial impact of the COVID-19 pandemic is a combination of involuntary furloughs and voluntary pay reductions that will affect approximately half of Clemson’s employees statewide.

These actions will begin Sept. 1 and are expected to generate more than $8 million in personnel savings – or the equivalent of saving approximately 150 median-level positions.

“A guiding principle in our discussions around these actions has been to minimize the financial impact to our lower-paid employees,” Clements wrote. “As such, those employees earning less than $50,000, which comprise approximately half of Clemson’s 6,500 full-time employees statewide, will not be affected by these actions.

“The remaining Clemson employees will be affected to an increasing degree, based on salary, with our highest earners being furloughed for 12 days. Furloughs will extend through Dec. 31.”

In all, more than 3,000 Clemson employees and staffers will be required to take days off without pay.

“In addition, those under contract in Athletics have agreed to take pay reductions equivalent to the amount of pay they would have lost through furloughs, with all Athletics staff members who earn $400,000 or more taking at least a 10 percent pay reduction,” Clements continued. “I also will take a 10 percent reduction in my total compensation.”

Clements went on to say these are challenging times and the University and Athletics is doing all it can to work together.

“I know that losing any compensation is difficult,” he said. “Moving forward, we will continue to operate as efficiently as possible while still delivering a first-rate education to our students.

“The full impact of the COVID-19 pandemic likely won’t be known for some time. I can promise, however, that we will be open and honest in communicating our future plans, and all decisions will be made with the interests of our employees in mind.”

—Clemson University Communications contributed to this story

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