Biweekly Cap Boosted To $22.04

Notice Of 2017 Union Dues Cap Increase

The Independent Association of Publishers' Employees has informed Dow Jones that the annual increase in the cap on Union dues payments should be implemented as soon as possible.

In a letter to Company officials today, the Union asked Dow Jones to process the increase as required by a 2005 referendum of the IAPE membership.

Once the Payroll Department recalculates dues payment rates for employees, the capped amount on Union dues will rise by 43 cents, from $21.61 to $22.04 per pay period.

The percentage rate for IAPE dues — 0.7% of base pay (and commissions, where applicable) — has not changed. The only members immediately affected by this increase are those with gross, bi-weekly salaries between $3,087.14 and $3,148.57.

On November 18, 2005, IAPE members approved the following in a membership referendum:

Dues shall be assessed at a rate of 0.007 (or 0.7%, collected on base pay plus commissions only) with a cap of $20.77 per pay period, effective on the first of the month, 60 days after ratification.

Thereafter, the individual cap shall be increased annually by no more than the percentage amount of the average compensatory increase in all contracts between IAPE and each employer.

The 2016 compensatory increase for each IAPE collective agreement with Dow Jones & Company was 2%, requiring a 2% increase to the dues cap.

Boosting the cap on Union dues is a matter of equity: immediately following our 2005 dues referendum, only IAPE members with bi-weekly salaries at or below $2,967.14 paid the full 0.7% of their earnings. The original $20.77 cap represented a smaller percentage of salary — in many cases significantly smaller — for our higher-paid members.

The cap on IAPE dues originated at a time when IAPE contracts also contained a cap on annual pay increases. Until 2007, the highest-paid 6% of employees represented by the Union only received 85% of the annual IAPE-negotiated pay increase. We were successful in eliminating that clause beginning in 2008.

The Union will continue to increase the cap on an annual basis — subject to the terms of the language above — until such time as IAPE members decide that a cap on dues payments should no longer exist.

To clarify: the upcoming increase does not alter the IAPE dues rate in any way. IAPE members will still be charged 0.7% of earnings — that rate may only be adjusted by membership referendum.