It's Not Just Newspapers

I guess I don't get the math: does this mean for the next 8 months, you will be taking a 15% pay cut, and then after 8 months, it rolls back to a 10% pay cut? Nobody's actually writing a check and paying them back, right?

Are you working on commisssion or some other percentage rate, as opposed to an established wage?

I'd definitely have a lawyer, and probably a tax accountant, look at it. If you're paying back money you were paid last year (if that's how it's officially being defined), it does all sorts of whacky things to you, tax-wise.

 

Regarding the talent fee, I worked for a paper one time where the union accepted a clause in the contract that any of our stories picked up elsewhere, for a fee, meant 75 percent of the fee to the publisher and 25 percent to the writers. Someone would reprint a story, pay $50 and accounting would grab that check and add $12.50 gross to your paycheck.

It's a little different, because ours wasn't original work, but it is a similar double-dipping situation since you're doing your day job's broadcast from the remote site.

Our deal was lousy and so is yours.

 

Yeah. If nothing else, for your own benefit, talk to an accountant about this for your personal taxes this year. I don't understand the crazy voodoo economics that our tax code has become, but whether it's a straight paycut or some sort of "pay back" garnishment, it should at least affect what you have to pay the feds. Either way, you're making less money, so you should have to fork over less in taxes.

Even if they've back-tracked due to very shifty legality of this and won't codify it as making you "pay back" what you've already earned, it sounds like somebody in management said that's what they were doing in a meeting somewhere. If anyone in a position of power wrote anything down, particularly in an email, at any time, print that out and save it.

This can't be legal. I mean, I guess it could be. I'm not a lawyer. But it sounds like they're just fucking you over and possibly garnishing your wages for dubious reasons. If they need to make pay cuts due to the current crappy state of the economy, that's one thing. If previous management was "over paying" you, or you were being "over paid" based on the economy last year, management should damn well just have to eat that. They might not want to, and they might be trying this bullshit to avoid it, but they should have to.

 

Grrrrrrrr!!!!!!


(a justified grrrrrrr, however,.......)

 

I should clarify...Officially, It's a ten percent pay cut.

In actuality, it doesn't quite work that way. And middle management has made it clear, that my alternative is to quit.

 

I'm somewhat in the dark about radio. Is this type of arrangement with appearance fees typical of other stations at all? Precedent might help determine what course of action, if any, that you might take.

To draw a print parallel, does anybody know, when, say, big-name newspaper columnists or reporters make TV appearances or do sideline gigs for other outlets, does their primary place of employment get a cut of what is paid to the person for that work, like a finder's fee or agent's cut, or something?

Somehow, I doubt it.

 

Are you listening college kids? God this pisses me off. "We won't be giving you the money back."
Sir, may I please say this to you slow so you can understand it: "Fuck you!"
Geezus how would anybody in college continue in this profession. We're getting close to the point this will be a minimum wage profession. I'm fucking serious. Minimum wage.

 

Other professions aren't looking real hot right now either, though. I had a friend who worked for an engineering firm just get laid off in a round at her place because the economy's so crappy. It's not just newspapers and it's not just media either. The job market out there simply blows.

All that said, I can't imagine how it's legal to ask you to pay back salary you already received, let alone salary you received in another tax year. Definitely talk to an accountant, and you might want to drop an attorney a note to see if he can give you a pro bono opinion on how the hell that could be legal.

 

I'll try and clear up some questions as well as I can. It's difficult for us to completely understand what's been going on, because, while we were promised "transparency in this process to the point that you will see the reduction in parentheses on your check", that did not happen on the first one.

Officially and legally, this is a ten percent pay cut. However, they did not just start paying me ten percent less on May 1st. From what we have been told (and we still haven't seen any formula on paper), the ten percent cut is based on what our gross income was for 2008. In order to "hurt those the least that make the least" if you made under 40K in 2008, the first 18K is exempt from any reduction. After that, there is a sliding scale from 40 to 49K and 49K and above that removes part of that 18K exemption. When it was announced, we were told they still hadn't completed all the accounting so the formula being used could not be provided for each employee. It still hasn't. My wife works in payroll for a local school district and it took her almost a half hour to figure out what was happening on that first check. She tells me that it's right around 12.5 percent for this first one, but that it will change with the amount of appearance fees on each check.

I don't like that they told us we would be able to easily understand the cut, and we don't. I don't like that they told us to feel free to ask any questions about any part of the process at any time, and they wont answer them. They are always "gonna get back to you".

My wife says that financially, we should be OK although at last nights school board meeting, it was determined that district employees will be required to take 8 furlough days over the next fiscal year, so she is getting cut too. I am glad in this economy to be OK. But it ticks me off, that these people can be so cavalier about my income.

I hope this helps, although I am sure that it just made it more confusing ??? Thanks for the suggestions, and the support, I really appreciate it.

 

Now, that's the story I really, really want to cover.