33% of workers are prepared to take a wage cut to keep their job

One in three workers is prepared to accept a pay cut if it means keeping their job, according to a survey published on Tuesday.

The national salary survey was carried out among 80,000 workers with an average annual salary of €37,000 by career website Intermediair and the Nyenrode Business University.

The respondents said they were willing to accept a drop in pay of an average 3%, or nearly €100 a month.

Earlier this year, IT company Capgemini asked 300 of its expensive older workers to take a pay cut of between 30% and 40%. The company will not say how many of them agreed, according to the Volkskrant.

The national salary survey shows that around 4% of companies have asked their staff to take a pay cut this year. These include IT companies and sectors hard hit by the economic downturn such as transport, construction and healthcare.

Utrecht economics professor Joop Schippers is not surprised that 66% of those questioned are not prepared to take a cut in salary to keep their job. ‘They are well aware that they can still end up out of work six months later,’ he told the Volkskrant.

 

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