Karma: Washington Post Union Says Paper Underpays Non-White Employees, Recommends Hiring Diversity Consultant

The Washington Post underpays non-white employees compared to white employees, the paper’s union said Wednesday.

“Collectively, employees of color are paid less than white men, even when controlling for age and job description” among newsroom employees, according to the Post Guild’s statement on its study on pay disparities at the paper.

The union wants the paper to “hire an equity, diversity and inclusion chair/consultant and form a diversity committee” in order to “hold the company accountable in creating an equitable and diverse workplace,” the statement said.

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“Women as a group are paid less than men” in the newsroom, the union found, adding that “the pay disparity between men and women exists almost exclusively among employees under the age of 40.”

The union also took issue with the fact that the vast majority of merit-based raises in the newsroom allegedly went to white employees: “The Post tends to give merit raises based on performance evaluation scores, but those who score the highest are overwhelmingly white.”

“The Post is fairly consistent across races/ethnicities and genders at awarding raises to those who do well on performance evaluations,” the union stated. “But in 85 percent of instances in which a 4 or higher was awarded to a salaried newsroom employee, that employee was white. Employees are rated on a scale of 1 to 5.”

The Post didn’t immediately return a request for comment.