Tronc has underpaid women and journalists of color by thousands of dollars a year at the Los Angeles Times, suggesting systemic salary gaps by race and gender, according to an analysis of newsroom salary data by the L.A. Times Guild.
The L.A. Times Guild’s full report, available here, is based on pay data for roughly 320 full-time journalists in our collective bargaining unit, which includes reporters, photographers, copy editors, designers and other newsroom workers. It does not include workers such as line editors whose inclusion in the union has been challenged by the company, nor does it include managers.
The L.A. Times Guild requested this data from Tronc as part of the collective-bargaining process; the information has been anonymized to protect worker privacy.
Some key findings:
- Among unionized journalists at The Times of all ages and job titles, women and people of color make less than white men. On average, women of color in the Los Angeles Times’ bargaining unit make less than 70 cents for every dollar earned by a white man.
- Across all ages and experience levels, the average reporter salary at the L.A. Times is about $95,000. The average salary for female reporters is $87,564, while the average for men is $101,898. The average for people of color is $85,622, and the average for white reporters is $100,398.
- Those gaps can partly be explained by the fact that many of our most senior, best-paid journalists are white men. But a detailed analysis conducted by the L.A. Times Guild also found scores of individual women and journalists of color who, on average, make thousands of dollars less than white and male co-workers of similar ages and job titles.
- Women represent 42.8% of The Times bargaining unit but their representation falls off dramatically among older workers.
- Of unionized staff, only, 38.7% are people of color — and like female employees, representation in the newsroom falls off with age.
The findings shed light on why the Los Angeles Times unionized after 136 years. We’re a stronger newsroom when we look out for each other. We will be meeting with our members soon to discuss this report and what should come next.