State Programs May Help Some Strapped Charities Save Jobs

By Caroline Preston

Many charity executives today are being forced to choose among an unpalatable menu of budget-cutting measures that include salary cuts, furloughs, and the least savory step: layoffs. But some may want to consider another, slightly less painful way to cut personnel costs known as work sharing.

Introduced in the late 1970s as an alternative to laying off employees, state work-sharing programs enable employers to save money by cutting back on staff members' hours while the government