Unionized journalists at New York Magazine released a pay study on Aug. 12 that found “glaring inequities.”
Among the findings:
- The median salary for women in the newsroom is more than $27,000 less than the median salary for men.
- While two-thirds of employees are female, nearly two-thirds of the 25 highest-paid are men.
- The median salary for women of color is roughly $8,000 less than their white female colleagues and $34,000 less than male colleagues of any race or ethnicity.
- Of the 25 highest-paid newsroom employees, 22 are white.
“We are often told that New York Magazine should strive to offer a ‘New Yorker’s view of the world’ but New York does not look like New York,” members of New York Mag Union wrote.
Of 135 staffers in the unit, 75.6 percent self-identify as white, while only 24.4 percent self-identify as another racial or ethnic background — Asian (8.1 percent), Black or African American (9.6 percent), Hispanic or Latinx (less than 2 percent). Only 32 percent of New Yorkers are white, with Asians making up 14 percent, Blacks or African Americans making up 24 percent and Hispanic or Latinx making up 29 percent.
And New York Magazine struggles to retain employees, particularly women and people of color, union members said. In the past two years, more than 80 of their colleagues have left the magazine – a turnover rate of 50 percent. “The issue that came up repeatedly? Insufficient pay.”
Members of New York Mag Union conducted the study earlier this year, as they prepared to bargain with Vox Media, New York Magazine’s parent company, over the way employees are compensated.
The report was based on salary, employment, and demographic data provided by Vox Media in April 2021. The report focuses on full-time workers to make valid salary comparisons. It utilizes median quantifiers rather than averages, as medians are less likely to be skewed by outliers at the high and low ends.
The union bargaining committee has made contract proposals intended to resolve the disparities. These include:
- Institute minimum salaries that will make pay less subjective, especially at the entry level. The minimum salaries they propose would immediately decrease the median pay gap between men and women by nearly 40 percent, and raise the median salary for people of color by more than 20 percent and for women of color by more than 40 percent.
- Enshrine a livable annual wage increase, distributed on a sliding scale, to combat factors that can shape a manager’s decisions to award increases based on qualities other than performance.
- Provide caps on the cost of healthcare, and a minimum 401K matching program to make the workplace a healthy and sustainable one.
- Address New York Magazine’s history of understaffing and burnout with commitments to properly staffing departments and providing standardized expectations for the workweek.
“We recognize that these are complex issues that reflect deep societal disparities, and are encouraged by Vox Media’s efforts to diversify our staff. But the clearest path toward hiring and retaining a diverse workforce is ensuring fair pay, reasonable benefits, and a sustainable environment,” they wrote. “We believe Vox Media shares our desire to make New York Magazine a more equitable and sustainable workplace, and codifying these steps will help make significant progress toward that goal.
Follow New York Mag Union on Twitter @NYMagUnion or visit their website, NYMagUnion.org.