From the article
Having had a long run of high growth and success, Ireland has now had a severe bust, the deflation of a housing bubble, and a financial crisis. Plus, its government is running big deficits. Sound familiar?
In response, the current Irish government budget takes these steps (translating from euros to dollars and rounding):
• Government employees’ salaries up to $40,000 will be reduced by 5%.
• The next $54,000 of salary will be reduced by 7.5%.
• The next $74,000 of salary will be reduced by 10%.
When these tranches are added together, this gets you up to salaries of $168,000. Government salaries over this amount may be subject to marginal reductions of as much as 15%.
This looks like a very sensible plan for nonmilitary government employees.
Ireland has already worked out the plan. All the U.S. has to do is implement it.
Agree (more or less) + reduce paid holidays to 5 instead of current 10. + Hiring freeze + Promotion freeze. Not all my coworkers agree with me.