by digby
Stop paying women and minorities less. Easy peasy:
In an email to staff on Thursday, Wall Street Journal editor Gerard Baker pledged to close the gender and race gaps in newsroom salaries, after union data revealed that white men make significantly more money than everyone else at publications owned by Dow Jones & Co.
“I am personally committed to eliminating it as a matter of urgency,” Baker wrote in the internal email (read the note in its entirety below). “We have the finest journalists in the world and I am anxious to ensure that we reward them properly and equitably.”
Baker’s words echoed a Wednesday memo from Dow Jones chief executive William Lewis, who said he ordered a review of hiring, development and compensation programs at the company, which includes the Journal, MarketWatch.com and Barron’s. […]
The conversation follows the release of an analysis by the Independent Association of Publishers’ Employees 1096, which found, on average, full-time women at Dow Jones properties make about 87 cents for every dollar paid to full-time men. (The figure covers all Dow Jones workers who are represented by the union — a group of about 1,400 across North America, including writers, copy editors and customer service representatives.)
Sadly, they apparently did a previous study that came to the same conclusions back in 1991. So we’ll have to see if this time they actually follow through.
And by the way: closing the gender gap could pull half of working single mothers out of poverty. That represents millions and millions of women and children in this country.