Wages up at newspapers

I didn't, since I'm in management after negotiating myself out of the union in the last contract talks. But our entire union staff got a two per cent increase this year, and some got as much as seven per cent on top of that by graduating to the top of the grid.

Of course, we've also lost two and a half positions in the newsroom in that time, with another about to go through attrition next month.

 

I got married, so there is less money in taxes being taken out of my check. Kind of feels like a nice raise.

But an actual wage increase? Uh, no. Second time in my 26 years in the business there was no raise.

 

I got a small raise in January with the promise that I'd get a list of goals to reach for over the next six months. If I met the goals, I'd get a duplicate of the original raise.

I've never seen the list of goals.

 

Here's the nut of the release:
"According to NICS figures, online positions and graphic artists showed the largest salary gains. Interactive producers received the highest increases in the 13 to 14 percent range. Positions focused on new and alternative business development, such as co-op advertising and alternate distribution, also indicated salary increases in the range of 5 percent.

In addition, most newsroom positions showed salary increases except for editorial page editors and beginning reporters. Experienced reporters received more than a 2 percent salary increase."

 

I will make around 15 percent less money than I made last year. A lot of people I know in this business have it just as bad or worse. So this is the phoniest survey on the planet.

 

I call bullshit.

 

Is 2.1 percent really something to boast about, considering inflation is usually around 3 percent and health care costs rise at an average of about 15 percent a year? I mean seriously. "Woo! Your salary went up 2 friggin percent!" For someone making $25,000 it breaks down to about $400.

 

I'd love to know what paper paid interactive producers 14 percent more in '09.

Maybe it was 14 percent up from the 2008 base salary of $19,000.

I'm a producer and I lost 3.6 percent this year. Will probably be more by the end of the year.

 

It is something to boast about... if it were true. If your profession really did improve wages 2.1 percent in a year when the economy contracted somewhere near 40%, that's really is something.

 

the economy only contracted somewhere between 8 and 12 percent.

 

That's a car payment plus a cell phone payment and a week's groceries. I'd gladly take it.

 

"Ooh, ooh, ooh. I know how they could get numbers like that."