Surprise, Surprise – Dow Jones Awarded Merit Raises After All

IAPE members on average got 4.5% pay increases. Did you get more than the mandatory contract raise?

Turns out Dow Jones awarded merit raises afterall.

Despite some managers claiming they couldn’t award merit raises due to the union’s hard-fought contract, 35 IAPE members did in fact receive discretionary raises this year, according to an IAPE analysis of pay data provided by the company.

It’s almost as if management can hand out discretionary raises when it wants to. Just like when it wants to retain members who competitors try to poach.

Eligible IAPE members received raises of at least 3.75% thanks to our 2023-2026 contract. Yet a number of members with strong job-performance reviews were told that’s all the company could spare, even after “the best year on record for Dow Jones.” The morale-boosting reward for hard work with results: the ability to keep working hard.

Those who received discretionary raises got pay bumps ranging from 6.84% to 34.7%.

Nine of these employees are journalists who received an average raise of 15.4% (11.65% above the mandatory contract raise). Five are Wall Street Journal reporters, with raises ranging from 11.11% to 21.69%.

Across the bargaining unit, the average pay increase for IAPE-represented employees this year was 4.5%, which seems to have been the overall Dow Jones target increase of payroll expenses.

Out of 1,275 IAPE-represented employees eligible to receive a negotiated pay raise this year, 396 received rate increases in excess of our 3.75% compensatory increase.

Of those 396, reasons for additional pay are as follows:

Minimum Dollar: 276. This means many members were entitled to a pay bump of at least $56.25 per week, because a 3.75% increase was less than that threshold.

Scale: 66. Scale increases boosted pay for these 66 individuals by an average of 7.03% including, for the first time in several years, more than a handful of Reporters. Our revised Reporter Tier literally paid off for 23 of our members, increasing pay by an average of 6.16%. This means our contract is lifting pay more aggressively for members who are paid the least.

Promotions/Title Change: 14

Discretionary: 35

Merit bonuses: TBD. IAPE will receive and review updated, one-off, bonus data at the end of this fiscal quarter.

Merit raises were indeed available this year. If you didn’t get one, management decided you weren’t worth it.

We all like to feel appreciation for going above and beyond for our jobs. If you’re not feeling the love from management (or even if you are), consider using your extra time to help IAPE. Your union will soon be gearing up for our next contract fight in 2027. It seems the best way to get a raise is through our union.