Promoting pay equity one of The NewsGuild’s top national priorities in 2019. Examining the disparity in pay for men and women in the workplace is a mandate for each TNG Local. The United Media Guild conducted such a study at the Post-Dispatch, following the lead of Guild-represented newspapers such as the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Washington Post, Philadelphia Inquirer, Philadelphia Daily News, Minneapolis Star Tribune, Los Angeles Times and San Francisco Chronicle.
At the Post-Dispatch, our union contract guarantees annual pay step increases to the top of the pay scale for non-commission employees at the paper, and a livable base wage for those on commission. Because of this, we don’t suffer from the massive gender pay disparities that plague other papers like the Los Angeles Times, where the median gap between men and women in newsroom is $14,000.
There are, however, notable disparities in the data worth discussing. The United Media Guild’s analysis of salaries for union members in the newsroom and advertising departments finds that, for the newsroom, the median salary for women is less than the median salary for men.
Of the 20 highest-paid people in the newsroom, four are women. The highest-paid woman in the newsroom receives the twelfth-highest salary. Women in the newsroom make less than the median base rate of $33.63; the median base rate for women is $33.22. In one year, that’s a nearly $800 difference. The median base rate for men in the newsroom is $34.34.
Advertising data tells a different story. Of the top 20 highest-paid employees in advertising, including retail and classified advertising, and creative, according to base pay, four are men. Sixteen are women. The highest-paid woman in advertising ranks second in the top 20.
Base rates, as opposed to annual salaries, were used to level the playing field for analysis, as some Guild members work on commission and others receive overtime. The study didn’t analyze experience or years of service, as that detail would make it too easy to identify people.
The Guild understands the current financial difficulties in journalism. We encourage management to work to improve gender pay equity at the Post-Dispatch.
The Guild encourages members who feel they are under-compensated to present their cases individually to their managers and ask for raises. The Guild will support the requests by providing information about an individual member’s salary and how it compares to others in their job description. Guild leadership will also assist members with advice in how to best prepare those requests.
The data also reveals that while the Post-Dispatch is almost evenly split on employee gender, we lack racial diversity. The guild hopes management will take concrete steps, such as advertising with and recruiting from groups that represent minority journalists, such as NAHJ, NABJ and others, to create a more diverse workplace and provide perspectives that better reflect St. Louis.