NAJA demands Gannett address pay disparities in U.S. newsrooms

OKLAHOMA CITY — The Native American Journalists Association demands Gannett immediately address sexist and racist pay disparities in its newsrooms and calls on journalism philanthropists, funders, grantors and subscribers to join as allies in holding the company accountable.

According to a recent study by the NewsGuild-CWA, women and people of color made at least $5,000 less than their white male counterparts at 14 Gannett newsrooms in the U.S. At the Arizona Republic, a hub for Indigenous women working on stories from Indian Country, the gender pay gap was nearly $30,000 - 63 percent of what white reporters made.

NAJA calls for immediate action to address pay disparities for women and journalists of color across Gannett-owned newsrooms including:

• Raise starting salaries to a living wage and implement pay scales based on experience company-wide

• Release anonymized pay data for the entire company broken down by location, department, job title, years at the company, age, gender and raceCreate policies and ongoing reviews to improve hiring and retention of reporters from underrepresented groups, as well as to eliminate future pay disparities

• Voluntarily recognize and bargain in good faith with employees

• Apply retroactive pay as reparations for racist, sexist treatment

• Executives responsible for these disparities be fired immediately

Where Gannett management exploits workers while paying exorbitant amounts to their executives and shareholders, NAJA calls on journalism organizations engaged in funding special projects, providing newsroom resources in the form of grants, as well as subscribers, to immediately divest from Gannett outlets until employees of color are treated equally and fairly. A failure to do so would only embolden newsrooms to continue these practices without fear of repercussion.

NAJA stands in solidarity with reporters at Gannett outlets that have been exploited for their race and gender and demands immediate action.