Just in: NY Phil players win $205k pay deal
OrchestrasThe interim management of the NY Philharmonic has offered the musicians a 30 percent pay raise, taking the basic minimum wage in the strings to $205,000 a year. Players in other sections automatically earn more. The musicians will vote today on whether to accept the deal, which will be phased in over three years.
‘This is a restorative settlement that brings our musicians to the level of their peer orchestras,’ acting CEO Deborah Borda told the parish paper.
‘Our members deserved this raise,’ said Local 802’s Sara Cutler, who said yesterday that players could not afford to pay their bills on a mere $153k a year.
That’s a massive pay increase.
And well deserved! Congrats my friends and colleagues!
Not when you take into account inflation since 2019!
They got hosed!
From 2019 to 2024, the cumulative inflation was 22.70%.
So a raise of 30% over the next 3 years is just (1) making up for what they lost in inflation over the last 5 years, and then (2) keeping up with inflation in the next 3 years.
And that’s based on an optimistic guesstimate that inflation will average 3% over the next 3 years, when it averaged 4.2% in the last 5 years primarily under Biden.
(And not to inject more politics in this, but if Deep Blue New York votes Harris, you can bet your ass inflation won’t dip in the next 4 years, but your income tax with certainly rise in the next 4 years, especially because now you’ll make more than $200K per year, but hey, I digress)
Reject it! Veto it! Don’t let Deborah Borda sucker you into a terrible deal.
So, different base pay based on section? Then what exactly is base pay if it differs?
As is standard in many major orchestras, base pay is the minimum scale for everyone. There is often negotiated overscale that can depend on a number of factors, such as length of tenure with the orchestra, seating (i.e. principal players earn more), etc. There may be different caps on overscale for different chairs, which is what allows the concertmaster to be paid much more than, say, the bass clarinet player. All of this would be fleshed out in their contract.
also extra pay if they do recordings and/or broadcasts
I really hope they’ll be able to manage now.
Still only a fraction of what the executive time pocket
So now they’ll double the price of tickets to $412 for the least expensive to $868 (10/4/24). What a night out at a concert.
The concert is nearly sold-out; only expensive tickets are left.
You are cherry-picking your example. If you want to make a cogent point, you should cite the price of an average concert, not a special event.
NICE!