Disarray and discontent at Forbes

Feven Merid writes for Columbia Journalism Review about the issues at Forbes, which faces a staff that has unionized and a potential sale of the company.

Merid writes, “Recently, union members looked into who among them had gone without a raise since they’d organized. Their study found that almost two-thirds were women—and, on average, women in the bargaining unit make about $11,300 less than men do. Forbes pays the average female senior writer $22,250 less than the average male senior writer. The salary discrepancies reflect broader gender inequity at the company. ‘Historically, for women in the Forbes newsroom, it’s harder to get promoted through the ranks,’ McEvoy told me. Since unionizing, Forbes has lost at least fifty unit employees—and 60 percent of them have been women.

“The union study also found that ‘Forbes has routinely struggled to hire and retain staffers from underrepresented backgrounds.’ Just 8 percent of union members are Black; only 6 percent identify as Hispanic. (The vast majority of the company’s executives are white.) The average Black staffer in the Forbes newsroom makes about $15,000 less than the average white staffer. Last October, the union held a bargaining session focused on its diversity, equity, and inclusion proposals; Federle and Lane were invited to attend but didn’t show. Current and former employees were initially asked to speak, but management representatives pushed back against the presence of ex-staffers, who instead had to submit written and video testimonials. Murphy told me, of the company’s leadership, ‘They seem very resistant to hearing about people’s personal experiences at Forbes when you are not a white person.’ (‘Forbes is committed to pay equity and more broadly to DEIB [diversity, equity, inclusion, belonging], and has put into place practices that have led to greater opportunities for women and people of color,’ Hankes said. ‘We take this work very seriously.’)”