WSJ/Dow Jones union wants to see if female pay has improved

The union that represents business journalists at The Wall Street Journal, MarketWatch.com and Barron’s sent out the following email to its members on Thursday:

Dear Members,

In what has become an International Women’s Day tradition, IAPE is reviving the discussion on the long-standing claim the union has against Dow Jones–a significant gap exists between salaries of IAPE-represented men and women, even when they do the same job and have the same level of experience.

Two years ago, IAPE kick-started the company-wide debate about the gender pay gap at Dow Jones followed by a ground-breaking study that has become the benchmark in our industry.

Today, we are commissioning a follow-up review. Working again with the consulting firm Strength in Numbers, we are looking to determine if there has been any improvement after our initial findings about reporters, the single largest job title here.

We don’t want to stop there. As we said last year, we are investing in expanding our analysis to look into pay disparities that could be attributable to race. This has been complicated work for a glaring reason–we have few employees of color in the reporter title. And we are interested in hearing other suggestions about how we can further study the pay dynamics at Dow Jones.

Dow Jones has said no disparities exist because of race or gender according to its own internal and external studies. That may be because in analysis conducted by Willis Towers Watson, Dow Jones asked statisticians to consider extreme pay disparities only. Though just a small number of IAPE represented employees received pay adjustments, the results were still startling. Almost all 31 were women or minority men and the most severe case ended in a pay increase of 27%.

To our members with other titles and classifications, we haven’t forgotten about you. IAPE is looking into how we can give an appropriate review of potential pay disparities across all departments where represented employees work. Please reach out with your thoughts on ways we can do meaningful investigations beyond title.

IAPE can’t effectively work to end inequity at Dow Jones without your help. Please contact  Diversity Committee Chairs Louise Radnofsky and Lillian Rizzo if you want to get more involved in the pay study and with your ideas for projects IAPE should pursue in this vein.

And see below a few ideas we are working on to ensure your voice is heard.

Am I Being Underpaid?

Pay comparisons have been a popular service among members since IAPE started offering them last year. We can tell you broadly how your compensation compares to that of other union-represented employees in a similar location, with similar experience, or with other parameters that you can suggest. We can’t and won’t reveal personal information about other employees, but if you want to know what kind of salary ranges exist for your job, or how your pay ranks — we can help. To ensure your request gets proper attention, e-mail payreview@iape1096.org and know your query will be treated in confidence.

I Got My IAPE Pay Review, Now What?

We know turning the information into a meaningful salary boost hasn’t been easy for many people. If you had a review, we want to hear your experiences. Reach out to Yogita Patel with your non-work email address to receive a short questionnaire, the findings of which will be used to examine how we can improve the process.

Diversity Talks

IAPE took Will Lewis to heart when last month he asked: What could you do in your department to ensure greater diversity and inclusion? We know some of you have already been told to think about this as part of your performance evaluation process, a new requirement for all employees this year.

But we don’t think that is the best place for those talks to start and have shared our sentiments with Dow Jones. We understand that these can be difficult conversations to have with your direct manager, so stewards across locations will be hosting hour-long group discussion sessions around the company’s stated diversity goals. This will be a safe space where you can share your thoughts and IAPE will filter up member ideas and concerns directly to the Dow Jones lawyers.

Want to host a Diversity Talk in your location? Have ideas on what will work best for you and your group (including offsite meetings)? Prefer to have a one-on-one chat with a steward, director or officer instead? Please let us know!