As representatives of more than 6,000 journalists of color across America, we are pleased that The Wall Street Journal and its parent company Dow Jones have pledged to close the race and gender salary gaps among their employees, as reported by the Washington Post on March 25. But we will remain vigilant until those inequities are remedied — not just at The Journal, but in all newsrooms.
As the Dow Jones reporters union IAPE 1096 found in its data, the disparities remained largely unchanged for decades. This underscores the important role of our organizations, which work to develop and recruit journalists of diverse backgrounds into newsrooms.
We are banding together to voice our concerns that journalists of color and women at The Wall Street Journal and other Dow Jones publications were not being compensated for their worth. We want the value of our members fully recognized. We call on The Wall Street Journal and Dow Jones to clearly and transparently communicate to employees how they can raise concerns about unequal pay in their newsroom and to ensure that doing so would not negatively affect their standing in their newsrooms.
We urge all news organizations to conduct their own inquiries about pay and ensure that hard working journalists are being paid fairly and equitably, regardless of color or gender.
But let’s not stop there; let’s also continue to address the lack of inclusion in our industry’s ranks. In addition to equal pay, we should also look into providing equal opportunity for promotions. We need more journalists of color in positions of leadership — which could help address these inequities during salary negotiations and the hiring process. We call on newsrooms to review their hiring and career development practices to ensure they are inclusive and fair.
As always, our organizations remain a resource.
Paul Cheung
President, Asian American Journalists Association
Jason Begay
President, Native American Journalists Association
Sarah Glover
President, National Association of Black Journalists
Mekahlo Medina
President, National Association of Hispanic Journalists
Jen Christensen
National Lesbian and Gay Journalists Association
Russell Contreras
President, UNITY: Journalists for Diversity