Forbes Union 2024 Pay Equity Update

Published April 2024

About a year ago, we compiled our first ever pay equity study on the newsroom. Unfortunately, our new findings show that there has been little, if any, progress over the past year.

The racial pay gap at Forbes continues to widen.  The unit’s 70 white full-time members make $95,879 on average, about $24,000 more than the eight Black unit members, $20,000 more than the 11 Asian staffers and $15,000 more than the unit’s 8 Hispanic or Latino staffers.

  • That is a wider gap than our study last year, when the unit’s 61 white full-time members made $94,360 on average, almost $15,000 more than the eight Black members and $7,000 more than the 10 Asian members. The average for the six Hispanic or Latino staffers was $99,750. Male journalists at Forbes make about 10k more than female journalists. 

  • Men in our bargaining unit continue to earn more than women. They average $96,541 a year, while women make $86,457. That difference of $10,083 is only slightly less than the $11,300 pay gap calculated in our 2023 pay equity study.

  • Raises are disparate too. The average raise for male unit members since 2020 was $5,525, compared to $4,347 for women. The average raise for white staffers was $8,238, compared to $4,734 for Asian staffers and $3,811 for Black staffers. The average raise for Hispanic or Latino unit members was $12,451.

  • Differences remain at the top. Out of the 20 highest-earning unit members, 14 are white and 12 are men.

  • Gaps continue to persist across titles.  In at least nine job titles, men make more than women. The gap is higher at higher ranks, with a pay gap of about $17,200 for the unit's 12 senior editors.

  • Our newsroom remains un-diverse. 10% of unit members identify as Asian (10% last year), 7% as Black or African American (8% last year), 7% as Hispanic or Latino (6% last year), 4.5% as two or more races (not Hispanic or Latino) (6% last year) and 8% did not disclose their race or ethnic background.

  • White men continue to be over-represented. White men make up the single largest group at 34% of the total (35% last year.)

Pay Equity Methodology

This pay equity study update is based on the census data provided to the Forbes Union by management as of January 2024. The census contains salary, job titles, length of employment, and self-reported demographic data. We have anonymized the data as much as possible to protect the privacy of individual members. This report doesn’t include data for employees outside the bargaining unit such as managers and some senior editorial staff or for people whose eligibility is contested.

Please see the 2023 report (below) for more information on our methodology and the history of pay inequity at Forbes.

Forbes Union 2023 Pay Equity Study

Published July 2023

Forbes prides itself on celebrating the accomplishments of diverse business leaders and producing journalism that promotes “inclusive capitalism,” but many of the same obstacles we denounce in our coverage are in place in our own newsroom.

Change begins with transparency, and we hope the results in this pay equity study will lead Forbes to measurable progress. Here are our key findings:

  • Men in our bargaining unit make $99,630 on average, while women make $88,350.

  • That difference of about $11,300 equates to a pay gap of about 89 cents on the dollar for women in our unit.

  • The unit’s 61 white full-time members make $94,360 on average, almost $15,000 more than the eight Black members and $7,000 more than the 10 Asian members. The average for the six Hispanic or Latino staffers is $99,750. 

  • Two-thirds of the people in our unit who make more than $120,000 are men.

  • The median salary for men is higher in 9 of the 12 roles staffed by both men and women in our unit.

  • The 20 longest-tenured members of our unit are all white. No current staffers who have worked in our newsroom for at least 10 years are not white.

The gender pay gap among members of our bargaining unit is glaring and inexcusable—but it’s not surprising, particularly to the women in our newsroom who are less likely to get fair raises and promotions. This inequity exists despite women in our unit holding a longer average tenure at Forbes than men.

When we first presented some of this data outside Forbes’ Equal Pay Day Forum on March 15, chief revenue officer Sherry Phillips acknowledged during the panel that, “We know at Forbes we have work to do in this very area.” That’s putting it lightly. We demand that management work with us to correct these disparities in our first contract, and that starts by setting equitable policies for pay and raises, and agreeing to the union’s diversity proposal.

Pay Equity Methodology

This report is based on census data provided to the Forbes Union by management between August 2021 and March 2023, which most recently included 98 staff members in the Forbes Union. The census contains salary, job titles, length of employment, and self-reported demographic data. We have anonymized the data as much as possible to protect the privacy of individual members. This report doesn’t include data for employees outside the bargaining unit such as managers and some senior editorial staff or for people whose eligibility is contested. 

This report looks at patterns and trends in the newsroom since the union was established in July 2021. We looked at both average and median salary figures for our analysis. One unit member paid hourly on a part-time basis was excluded from the salary statistics below. Further, roles across teams were standardized using titles displayed in our editorial masthead.

Makeup of the Forbes Union

There are 98 employees covered by the Forbes Union, including 97 full-time staffers who are paid an annual salary, according to the census data:

  • Forty-seven percent are women and 63% are white.

  • White men make up the single largest group at 35% of the total.

  • 10% of the staff identifies as Asian, 8% as Black or African American, 6% as Hispanic or Latino, 6% as two or more races (not Hispanic or Latino) and 6% did not disclose their race or ethnic background.

Forbes has also lost at least 50 unit employees since the union won its ratification vote in July 2021. About 60% of those departed employees were women, pointing to the company’s difficulty in ensuring gender parity across the newsroom. Further, the 20 staff members who have been at Forbes the longest–for eight years or more–are all white.

Here’s how salary breaks down by gender

On average, women in our bargaining unit make about $11,300 less than men. This equates to a pay gap of 89 cents on the dollar.

  • Average salary for women: $88,350

  • Average salary for men: $99,630

These disparities exist across almost all of editorial. The median salary for men is higher in 9 of the 12 roles staffed by both women and men in our unit. Further, the disparities are more severe as seniority rises. Forbes pays the average female senior writer $22,250 less than the average male senior writer, and the average female staff writer makes $6,000 less than the average male staff writer.

This issue extends beyond simple averages. Though roughly half of our shop is female, roughly two-thirds (67%) of the 31 members making over $100,000 are men. And 7 of 9 members (78%) making over $150,000 are men. At the other end, 56% of the members making $75,000 or less are women. Seventeen members–18% of the unit–make less than $64,000, lower than the salary floors won by our fellow unions at Sports Illustrated, the New York Times and Insider.

The breakdown by race is just as unacceptable.

It’s difficult to draw too many conclusions from the data by race because Forbes has routinely struggled to hire and retain staffers from underrepresented backgrounds, and the newsroom itself is smaller relative to other national media organizations with similar reach. The sample size is just too small, and many roles have only one or two members of an underrepresented race—if any at all. In order to protect the privacy of individual staff members, we left out race (or gender) breakdowns when the sample sizes were too small. However, even simple averages by race paint a clear picture of some disparities.

In our newsroom's union, the average staffer identifying as white makes $94,361. That's roughly in line with the average for the union, which is slightly lower at $94,282. However, it’s far higher than the average for staffers identifying as Black ($79,663), Asian ($87,350) and lower than the average for Hispanic or Latino staffers ($99,750). Members identifying as two or more races make an average of $107,583. These disparities exist despite the fact that the few staffers from underrepresented backgrounds exist across roles and seniority levels—from assistant editors to senior editors.

It’s not just current pay. There are problems with raises too.

Through the end of last year, some 60% of members who went without a raise since we unionized in July 2021 were women. Of members who were with Forbes at the time, only about 67% of women have received a raise, compared to 88% of men. As a result, the average salary increase for women has been nearly $4,000 less than the average increase for men. 

There’s a clear trend of women struggling more than men to get raises, and Forbes routinely underpaying women who’ve stayed with the company for several years. Among the 24 lowest paid members, who all make less than $70,000, the average tenure for women is more than 5 years, nearly three times that of the average tenure for men.

Forty of the fifty union members who were at Forbes when we unionized in the summer of 2021 received a raise through the end of last year. Thirty-two (80%) of these 40 members are white—while just three are Asian, two are Black, and two are Hispanic. That said, the sample size for non-white employees is small. Only 13 members who do not identify as white have been with Forbes since we unionized.

Here’s how the average raise for staffers who received one breaks down by race:

  • White: $16,200

  • Black: $10,250

  • Hispanic or Latino: $35,000

  • Asian: $17,667

Our newsroom's pay disparities are clear. On average, male employees receive higher pay, while many individuals from marginalized communities are paid less.

These results show that Forbes does not equitably compensate workers, even as many have taken on more work while being denied raises. It's also important to note these figures don’t include the dozens of staffers who have left since we unionized, which as recently as this year included women who struggled to get raises year after year.

On June 15, Managing Editor Joyce Bautista Ferrari criticized the union because it has “responded to just one of two Company proposals.” The proposal we have yet to respond to dictates that Forbes shall have the right in its discretion to increase the compensation of any employee. Effectively, Forbes management wants to strip the union of its right to negotiate raises for unit members. They want to retain the power to continue these pay practices that disproportionately hurt women and people from marginalized groups. And to make matters worse, they’ve further perpetuated the inequities by lying to unit members in saying the union is preventing them from giving out raises.

This must all change. As a union, we call on Forbes to: 

  • Disclose anonymized salary information for the entire organization, categorized by location, department, job title, tenure, age, gender, and race. 

    • It’s not only the newsroom that deserves this transparency. Everyone does. We need to know how pervasive these inequities are across all of Forbes.

  • Establish a minimum salary that aligns with a livable wage and implement comprehensive pay floors that consider employees' experience.

    • In recent months, NewsGuild peers at Insider Union and the New York Times Guild have won salary floors of $65,000. Over 20% of our unit makes less than that, and the newsroom’s existing salary floor is 15% lower. There’s no reason Forbes should care any less about its employees.

  • Take prompt and decisive action to rectify any existing wage disparities, including providing back pay since we unionized. 

  • Set goals and conduct regular assessments to enhance the recruitment and retention of individuals from underrepresented communities, while actively working towards eliminating future discrepancies in compensation. 

    • HR Chief Ali Intres has likened the union’s desire to institute DEI recruiting goals to the “definition of insanity”—despite our NewsGuild peers at Time, Sports Illustrated, the Daily Beast and more already committing to helping ensure at least 50% of the applicant pool making it beyond the initial interview stage be individuals from underrepresented groups.

CEO Mike Federle has said, “One of our most important business priorities is making Forbes the best place to work in media.” That won’t happen if management continues to ignore these disturbing inequities at the bargaining table and instead chooses to knowingly profit on the backs of underpaid workers—many women and coming from underrepresented backgrounds. We hope this report encourages Forbes to start showing this is a real priority, and we urge management to take action today.

On July 13, we presented the above report to management. After more than 24 hours, this is how Forbes responded:

The “pay equity study” that the NewsGuild of New York has issued is deeply flawed and fails to take into consideration different types of jobs that exist in the newsroom, skills required for varying roles, years of experience, expertise and many other factors that affect compensation decisions. Furthermore, the NewsGuild fails to include or account for critical data that would have offered a more accurate snapshot. Instead, it uses selective data to drive a false narrative of discriminatory pay practices. Pay equity is an ongoing practice that we take very seriously.

We know there is still work to do at the bargaining table with the NewsGuild. But in order to do that work, we need to ground our discussions in facts, honesty and a true spirit of collaborative negotiation. The union makes salary demands in its “study,” but it has yet to make a salary proposal at the bargaining table. We look forward to receiving one, and we hope our colleagues will be side-by-side with us as we dig in to do the thoughtful and deliberate work needed.

Joyce & Ali