Inequitable pay and lack of diversity persist in Gannett newsrooms across the country, a NewsGuild pay equity report that we took part in shows.
At The Palm Beach Post and Palm Beach Daily News, we’re calling on our corporate owner to come to the bargaining table to fix it.
Show your support here: https://actionnetwork.org/letters/support-gannett-journalists-seeking-to-end-correct-pay-disparities
While 53% of Palm Beach County is white, 77% of our newsrooms are white.
The median annual pay at our papers is $21,200 higher for men than women.
White workers’ median annual income is $14,500 higher than non-white workers.
Gannett’s moves have delivered blows felt beyond its newsrooms.
According to its financial filings, Gannett closed 40 printing facilities across the country in 2020, eliminating numerous jobs from our communities and laying off many of our colleagues.
Meanwhile, departing company executives cashed fat checks, according to NewsGuild research.
Former CEO Paul Bascobert was eligible for $4.1 million when he left in 2020; former CEO Bob Dickey, $18.2 million in 2019; former publisher John Zidich, $10.2 million in 2018; and the list goes on.
The journalists of The Post and Shiny Sheet deserve a fair, living wage.
There are gender pay gaps and race pay gaps. But perhaps most troubling both for those in the newsroom now and for the future is what can be described as a steady erosion of pay for those hired in this millennium.
Our newsrooms now pay five-year employees substantially less, in real dollars, than they paid beginning journalists two decades ago.
The erosion of young reporters’ living wages has forced some to take second jobs or live with their parents years into their professional careers, necessities all but unheard of 15 years ago.
Palm Beach County deserves newspaper staffs that are diverse, experienced and free from constant turnover due to low, unsustainable salaries.
Let our bosses know. Sign our petition.