A $10,000 Racial Pay Gap at Thomson Reuters

New York, NY — After completing an extensive pay equity study among NewsGuild of New York members at Reuters, the international news agency, the Guild discovered significant inequity in pay and opportunity related to race, gender, and age for Reuters editorial workers. 

Members of the NY Guild, the local labor union that represents over 3,000 media professionals at publications such as The New York Times, The New Yorker, The Daily Beast, New York Magazine and TIME, working at Reuters are calling on management to do better immediately. 

The NY Guild is among several NewsGuild-CWA locals studying pay inequity in newsrooms across the country, including at The Washington Post and The New York Times. As Reuters has never conducted a pay study of its own, Guild members pushed for a study in the interest of fairness and transparency. 

The NY Guild is among several NewsGuild-CWA locals studying pay inequity in newsrooms across the country, including at The Washington Post and The New York Times. As Reuters has never conducted a pay study of its own, Guild members pushed for a study in the interest of fairness and transparency. 

Because the Guild’s contract ensures that the union receives quarterly data on all Guild members, the study is based off of second quarter data from 2017, 2018 and 2019.

What the data shows, on average:

• Black employees are paid significantly less than white employees, which make up more than 77 percent of the newsroom. 
• When differences in job title, years at Reuters, age, and other relevant factors are included, the analysis found that black, non-Hispanic employees are paid $10,083 less than their white counterparts with similar qualifications and job responsibilities.
• Women as a group are slightly underpaid compared with similarly-situated men -- a gap of $2,020 or 1.6% less than male employees with similar experience, seniority, job titles and work locations. 
• Men disproportionately occupy high-seniority positions. The top 10 highest paid journalists at Reuters are all men.
• In recent years, Reuters has hired a disproportionate number of older, male employees. The company has hired twice as many men as women over the last three years. The median age for these new employees is 29 for women and 38 for men.

The Guild shared a summary of the results with Reuters management, which responded: 

“Reuters is committed to fair pay for all. Once we have had the chance to review the data and the methodology used, we would welcome the opportunity to meet with the Guild to discuss the study.” 

Guild members are calling on the company to close the pay gap and address the structural impediments that currently exist in newsroom hiring, developing and retaining a diverse pool of employees. 

“This is obviously about fairness, but it’s also about the oft-touted lofty values of Reuters,” said Dan Grebler, a Reuters editor and Guild Unit Chair. “It’s not enough to say that equity is a ‘core value’ -- the real question is how is this core value implemented and expressed? How do the people who break the stories, move the markets and report the news under the Reuters flag experience the manifestation of these core values?” 

The Guild and management met with the Guild’s Partnership Committee, as stipulated in the union contract, to review the methodology of the study  on December 13. They are scheduled to meet again in January 2020 as well as a follow up meeting to discuss the study. 

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About the NewsGuild of New York 
The NewsGuild, Local 31003 of the Communications Workers of America is a labor union representing 3,500 media professionals and other employees at New York area news organizations, including The New York Times, Thomson Reuters, BuzzFeed News, The New Yorker, New York Magazine, The Nation, The New Republic and The Daily Beast.