Reducing Payroll and Avoiding Lawsuits During the Coronavirus/COVID-19 Pandemic

No one knows how long the COVID-19 Pandemic will last.  The predictions are all over the place, from 6 weeks to 4-6 months.  Last week, businesses instituted a hiring freeze. This week businesses are looking at terminating their entire workforce in some cases and shutting down or taking other measures.

According to Moody’s Analytics, over 50% of the 153 million jobs in the economy are at high or moderate risk of being lost.  (In perspective, there were 800,000+ jobs lost in March 2009 during the Great Recession). According to Mark Zandi, chief economist at Moody’s Analytics, “…as many as 10 million of those workers could see some impact to their paychecks — either layoffs, furloughs, fewer hours or wage cuts.”

What are your company’s payroll options when your orders disappear or are substantially reduced?

As flight director Gene Kranz says in Apollo 13, “Work the problem, people.”