Friday, Sept. 29, 2006 | 7:30 a.m.
Catching up with his wife's daily letters after a month in Iraq, Marine Staff Sgt. Ken Duffy came across a letter from his employer back home.
His eyes jumped to the MGM Mirage logo, then across some of the paragraphs, then back to his wife's words.
"I enclosed this because I thought you'd like to know. Back here they're saying their military leave absence policy is in effect, and this is what you get as a benefit."
Signed by Terry Lanni, chairman and chief executive of MGM Mirage, the letter told Duffy that he would get 100 percent of his pay, plus be allowed to stay on the company's health plan.
"I had to read through it a couple of times, to make sure I was not assuming I was going to get something I wasn't," said Duffy, a Marine Reservist from Las Vegas. "From my perspective, this sure sounds like I'm going to be getting two paychecks."
The pay was a relief for a family that had to stretch its budget to accommodate a much smaller Reservist paycheck. The Duffys also had to squeeze money for extra expenses, such as day care for their 9-year-old daughter.
The benefit policy made MGM Mirage one of the first two Nevada companies to win the Employer Support Freedom Award, the highest honor given by the Defense Department to an employer. Sun Valley General Improvement District in the Reno area was also among the 15 companies that received the honor this year.
MGM Mirage executives recently returned from meeting with President Bush and other dignitaries in Washington.
Dixie Sue Allsbrook, chairwoman of Nevada Committee for Employer Support of the Guard and Reserve, said it was rare for an employer to extend full pay to an employee in the service. That organization handles nominations and gave MGM Mirage its 2005 Pro Patria state award.
"Most companies couldn't afford to do that," she said. "Even for MGM to do it is pretty phenomenal."
The paychecks and benefits have gone to 113 MGM Mirage families since the Iraq invasion. In 2003 Lanni had asked a team to prepare data for a proposed policy, and five minutes into an hourlong presentation he ordered it to be implemented, according to a company spokesman.
The day after the MGM Mirage merger with Mandalay Resort Group closed, letters on this policy went out to the new employees who qualified for the program.
Duffy, a security training manager at MGM Grand, received his full salary. Tipped workers receive base pay, plus a supplement for tips.
Although health benefits are available through the military, the continuation of company benefits is much easier on the families, Allsbrook said.
Twenty-four MGM Mirage employees are on military leave now.
"When called to serve, employees and their families should not concern themselves with questions about pay and benefits," Lanni said in a statement. "Their only concern should be their service to our nation."
Usually members of the military reserves or National Guard receive nothing other than what is required by law: a guarantee that they will have a job at the same level, with the same pay, when they return from duty.
State and city governments in Nevada give pay differential, meaning that the paycheck makes up for what the individual loses by not working in the civilian job.
Some smaller employers - such as the Sun Valley district, with just over a dozen employees - provide moral support, such as writing letters to those deployed.
"What we try to encourage employers to do is to support the Guardsmen and Reservists in whatever ways they can," Allsbrook said.
There are about 4,000 Guardsmen and Reservists in Nevada.
When Duffy returned from a 20-month tour, he poured all of his feelings onto a form that nominated his boss for an award.
So did at least two other MGM Mirage workers.
"You just can't help but think plenty of other people came back and did a quick write-up," Duffy said.
This story also appears today in In Business Las Vegas, a sister publication.
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