Getting the maximum from the minimums

While much discussion about the proposed new contract is understandably focused on the 1.5% across-the-board raise, changes in the minimum wage scales are expected to bring larger guaranteed raises to about one-quarter of our bargaining unit. The Guild leadership estimates that nearly 70 of the approximately 270 workers covered by our contract -- ranging from part-time scoretakers to full-time Senior Journalists -- would receive raises larger than 1.5% in at least one of the contract's four years as a result of these changes, not counting discretionary or "merit" raises.

First, a quick review of how minimums work. Each job classification is divided into at least two pay steps, based on experience or seniority; journalists, editorial assistants and News Information Center workers also have "senior" classifications based on responsibility or performance. The contract sets a minimum wage for each level, and that minimum rises at the beginning of each year. Under the current contract, part-timers can be paid 80% of the applicable full-time hourly minimum for their first two years as a journalist or their first three years as a non-journalist.

Therefore, you get raises through the minimums if your pay is below the new minimum for your classification at the beginning of the year; if you move up to a higher pay step or a higher classification; or if you move up from the 80% level to 100% parity as a part-timer. In the first case, at the beginning of the year, you would get either the across-the-board raise or the amount needed to bring you up to the new minimum, whichever is greater.

What would change in the new contract? For one thing, minimums would rise by 2% in 2005 and 2006 and 2.5% in 2007 and 2008, with slightly larger increases for a few classifications. While it's normal for minimums to rise more than the rate of the across-the-board raise, and this would be a smaller bump than in most past contracts, the combined impact of unusually small across-the-board raises and smaller discretionary raises would magnify the impact of the minimum increases. The Bargaining Committee estimates that would put more than $40,000 in our members' pockets beyond what the 1.5% raises would produce.

Also, part-time minimums would rise from 80% to 90% of the full-time hourly minimum after the first year of service, a significant boost for most scoretakers and some editorial assistants. Finally, the lowest-paid classification, Messenger, would be abolished and merged into the higher-paid Clerk classification, and a change in the Senior Editorial Assistant definition has already helped one employee move up. Those changes also could amount to hundreds of dollars a year more for each of the workers affected.