Lessons from journalism: Pay your diverse talent

I recently saw a tweet pleading, “We need more minorities in journalism.”

As a minority former journalist, this struck a nerve.

I remembered when I was five years into the business working in Boulder, Colorado, one of the state’s more expensive cities. At that time, SalaryList.com reported the average salary for an associate editor was $43,975. I was making just shy of $30,000 with a similar title.

I worked long, odd hours. I traveled extensively. I couldn’t afford anything but rent, leading me to put every other bill on a credit card. After almost two years of doing that, my credit card bills were astronomical.

Low pay is a common problem in journalism. Journalist Susan Gonzalez had a similar experience to mine, recently reaching a point where she moved from Denver to a place with a lower cost of living to crawl her way out of the debt she had racked up over the years at low-paying gigs.

Like journalism, the financial services profession has calls for increased diversity. Progress is slow, but it’s happening. Recently, the CFP Board announced its biggest and most diverse group of incoming certificants yet. Now, according to the CFP Board, 15% of certificants are Latino/Hispanic and 10%, Black.

If we are preaching wealth generation for diverse stakeholders, we have to explore how we can take down the barriers that might be keeping them from building wealth and staying in the industry. Because in some cases, professionals are coming into a space that is eerily similar to journalism in terms of pay.

THE IMPORTANCE OF PAY EQUITY

Going into journalism, we know that the pay isn’t going to be the greatest. But the story the financial services industry is selling to diverse candidates is the ability to do well by doing good. There are promises of good pay and building generational wealth for advisers and financial services professionals.  

Journalism is transparent about what it is, but financial services isn’t always.

I recently connected with a young woman of color who is from, and still resides in, one of the most expensive states in the country. She was educated at one of the finest schools in the University of California system. She had been looking to find a new position — one with room for growth and upward movement from a financial planner role that paid $40,000 annually. The average salary for financial planner job title in her state, according to Indeed.com, is $82,152.

I work in the salary question when I’m talking to well-educated, diverse women coming up in the financial services industry because we need to talk about it to get to a place of pay equity. In these conversations, I haven’t found one making more than $60,000 a year.

It’s important that we avoid the pay perils of journalism and make good on our promise to help diverse individuals build generational wealth.

IMPLEMENTING PAY EQUITY

Luz Gonzalez, owner of EQ Refined, a DEI consulting firm, citing data from Zenefits, said that 70% of Gen Z professionals would leave their current role to go to a company with pay transparency.

“It’s about trust and authenticity,” Luz Gonzalez said. “It’s about believing what an organization tells you. If you believe a company has your back, you’ll have their back.”

Some ways to increase pay equity are:

Pay interns. Unpaid internships are a barrier for diverse talent in both journalism and financial services. Pay people who produce for you and support organizations that are connecting diverse talent with paid internships, like the BLX Internship.

Start with an audit and then pay transparency. Luz Gonzalez recommends an audit as a first step. No law requires you to do this, but if you’re serious about increasing diversity, equity and belonging in your organization, being transparent about your salaries is key.

If you’re not ready to release the information, it’s still good for you to do the audit so you can know if there’s a problem. Take stock of who’s in your organization, their demographics and their pay. Examine why people are making certain amounts. Did your audit uncover that employees who are Black, indigenous, and people of color make less than their white counterparts, all else being equal (meaning same credentials, years of experience and output)? Why? Dive deep into this. Hire a consultant if you have to.

Pay for positions, not according to salary history. The wage gap has existed for decades. Women, in particular, are underpaid. When you ask quality candidates what they were being underpaid before, you’re just perpetuating underpaying people and contributing to the wage gap.

Post a pay range in your job descriptions. Some states require you to do this, but do it even if your state doesn’t. Even if you don’t have transparent salary information, your current employees can see what you’re paying for certain positions and will be able to better negotiate their own salaries based on this information.

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Curb negotiation games. I come from a family of teachers whose pay was determined by a salary schedule. It was formulaic and transparent. I didn’t know early on that I had to negotiate a salary, or have the skills to do so even if I had known. Companies bank on people not knowing this skill so that they can pay them less. If you’ve budgeted $70,000 for a position, just offer $70,000. Don’t try to save money at the expense of the wealth generation of a candidate who don’t know to negotiate.

Pay employees a living wage. If your employees can’t afford to pay their bills, Luz Gonzalez said, they are more likely to experience increased stress, lower productivity and higher turnover … and they’ll move on, right? Pay equity and respect supports retention, no? Paying a living wage for your area should be table stakes.

Jay Lipman, co-founder of ESG consulting and technology company Ethic, noted in a recent interview on our Framework podcast that large companies are in a position to make a larger impact in changing systems than individuals.

IN CONCLUSON

Susan Gonzalez is on her way to getting out of debt but notes that there's a lasting impact of a lack of pay equity.

“I don’t think people realize the domino effect of not paying your workers fairly,” she said. “Now I’m being paid a good salary, but I’m still catching up on all the debt from the news organizations that didn’t pay me fairly.”

I traded traditional journalism for corporate writing, which is just as stressful, but more lucrative. I can pay my mortgage and all my other bills, too, now. I could have made that decision earlier; however, we pursue journalism initially because we’re passionate about it, much like many of the diverse people I am connected with in this industry. But as Susan Gonzalez said, “You can’t feed your family with passion.”

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Ana Trujillo Limón is director of coaching and advisor content at Carson Group.