TORONTO – The Toronto Blue Jays are giving their workforce some stability by committing to pay staff on a Uniform Employee Contract through Oct. 1, avoiding furloughs or terminations related to the COVID-19 pandemic in their baseball and business operations.
Some employees will take pay cuts from June 15-Oct. 1, with those above a low-earning threshold taking a decrease and highest earners agreeing to larger compensation reductions.
All Blue Jays staff will maintain access to medical coverage and benefits.
The club had earlier committed to pay all its workers through May 31, and as expenses mount with minimal revenue coming in, outdid several other teams around the majors in maintaining staffing levels beyond June 1.
The St. Louis Cardinals, Minnesota Twins and Chicago White Sox have committed to keeping all employees on full salaries, but only through June 30 thus far, according to Ken Rosenthal of The Athletic.
The Chicago Cubs are keeping all their full-time employees but cutting some salaries, per Jeff Passan of ESPN, while San Francisco Giants cut their entire full-time staff but are scaling back pay for those earning over $75,000.
The Pittsburgh Pirates, meanwhile, announced Thursday that they are cutting pay to their baseball operations staff and putting some business-side workers on furlough.
