Pay and Benefits

What happens to managers’ ability to deal directly with employees on salary?

The labor laws prevent employers from engaging in “direct dealing” with individual employees over wages, hours and working conditions during bargaining and during the term of a contract, unless the parties agree to a contract provision allowing for individual wage discussions.
That means that, if there is a union in the engineering department, The Post has to deal directly with the union about employee wages, hours and working conditions when negotiating a collective bargaining agreement — instead of working directly with employees as individuals like we do now.
Unions focus on the collective group and often seek labor contracts that include uniform base wages and uniform annual increases, which can limit employers’ ability to reward employees with merit pay and merit bonuses.

What happens to wages and benefits while negotiations are underway?

Under labor law, while the parties are bargaining for a first contract, an employer is not allowed to make unilateral changes to the status quo on wages and benefits.

That generally means wages and benefits have to stay the same until the employer and the union reach an agreement to change them in a first contract, unless there is a history of making changes. That process of reaching a first contract often takes well over a year.

FAQ on Current Guild Contract

The Guild says it has secured strong benefits for employees in the Guild contract. Is that accurate?

It is misleading. The benefits that Guild-covered employees receive under the current contract are, for the most part, “me-too” benefits – meaning that they are the same benefits that The Post provides all non-represented employees and that The Post passes along to Guild employees.
- For example, under the current Guild contract, Guild covered employees get the same health insurance benefits that all other Post employees receive. The current Guild contract gives The Post the right to modify unilaterally health insurance benefits every year during open enrollment.
In terms of paid parental leave and personal days, when The Post increased those benefits for non-represented employees, The Post passed along the same benefits to Guild-covered employees– even though the Guild contract in place at the time did not require The Post to do so and, provided for modest parental leave and no personal days.
The Post has a record of making decisions about benefit improvements on a company-wide basis to benefit all employees, both non-represented and represented employees.

Does the current Guild contract set employee pay?

The Post negotiates minimum salaries for each job classification and annual increases with the Guild. In past contracts over the years, those annual increases have ranged from 0% to 2.5%. Prior contracts with the Guild have also frequently included lump-sum payments in lieu of salary increases.
The current Guild contract allows the Post to pay discretionary merit pay to employees, based on their individual merit, experience, talent, qualifications and performance.
The Post believes our salary structures and practices provide employees with generous and appropriate market-based compensation.
The New York Times quoted the Post Tech Guild complaining about employee salaries by comparing them to large tech companies and noting that “[o]ur salary range is completely dwarfed by what you see at the other major tech companies.”
We don’t believe it is realistic to compare our salary ranges to Amazon, Apple, Meta and Google, and we believe employees should view the Post Tech Guild’s positions on our salary ranges with some skepticism.

Does the current Guild contract dictate the Post’s pay equity policies?

No, the current Guild contract includes salary minimums for various positions – providing the floor for pay. But many Guild-covered employees are paid above these contract minimums. Pay for The Post’s professional employees – whether journalists or engineering professionals – is determined based on a variety of relevant considerations, including their individual merit, experience, talent, qualifications and performance.
The Guild pushed, in the last round of negotiations, to require The Post to rectify what the Guild argued were “pay inequities.” The Guild based its demands on a pay study that did not appropriately account for qualifications, experience, performance, or other relevant factors that weigh into pay decisions.
The Post rejected this effort to change its pay practices and the Guild withdrew its proposal.
The current Guild contract includes a process for employees to request a meeting with HR and their manager to discuss their pay and concerns about their pay, but does not impose obligations to make any changes.