Would you accept a 50% pay cut to get a job?


If you were among the millions of unemployed workers looking for a job in 2009, would you accept a 50% pay cut? That's the question that Shaun Chedister faced last year, according to CNNMoney. And his answer, after spending eight months looking for a new job, was yes. Unfortunately for Chedister, that pay cut meant giving up the lifestyle he had enjoyed before he got laid off.

Chedister had been making $125,000 at Washington Mutual but he was laid off from that job at the end of 2007. He spent eight months looking for a job to support his wife and four children. He ultimately accepted an offer from Ernst & Young as an executive administrator -- the catch? The job paid slightly more than half of what he was making before -- $66,000.

The problem was that Chedister's unemployment had run out and he still had bills to pay. Chedister is looking for a more affordable house and in December one of his cars was repossessed after he got behind on the payments. This hurts but once you lose a job you have two choices: keep looking or accept what's offered -- and that offer is likely to be less than what you made before.

In considering the odds that waiting for a better offer will pay off -- think about whether more people are likely to be joining you in the job search in 2009. If you think that the answer is yes, then accepting what's offered might be the right move. Unfortunately, since 70% of GDP growth comes from consumer spending, these lower job offers are likely to mean more layoffs as companies adjust their productive capacity to the lower spending power of the average American.

Are you looking for a new job? Have you recently landed a new one? Was the salary the same, above or below where you were before?

Peter Cohan is President of Peter S. Cohan & Associates. He also teaches management at Babson College. Portfolio published his eighth book, You Can't Order Change: Lessons From Jim McNerney's Turnaround at Boeing on December 26, 2008.

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