In less than a month, he was hired at nearly double his old salary.

Under a traditional plan, the average pension for the same retiree would have been $4,200 a year, or 28 percent of the old salary.

First, Hansen signed a contract paying $375,000 a year, his old salary.

The dispute ended after the store offered to rehire the workers at their old salaries, with back pay.

Unemployed workers who enter job training programs will receive 100 percent of their old salary.

But he said no one had been willing to take him on for even half his old salary.

"If it was the old salary it would help a great deal."

However, only a handful of the town's 600 teachers received less than that, under the old minimum salary of $19,494.

He was immediately hired by a firm in Massachusetts for four times his old salary.

After much haggling, the Cohans agreed to go on for the old salary.