2012 Compensation Reports: Big Changes

Traditionally, the annual compensation reports don’t require an introduction article but this year is an exception to the rule in light of a fundamental shift in the source data reliability for one of the report’s stakeholder groups.

If You’re New To The Reports, Read This Section

Each year in June, the reports examine the compensation trends among executives, music directors, concertmasters, and base musicians at more than 70 professional U.S. orchestras.

The reports have been designed to provide a side by side overview for the key figures within each organization’s paid stakeholders (board members are excluded because they serve on a volunteer basis).

In order to provide information that is as accurate and reliable, data for each year’s reports is gathered from the following sources:

The Big Change

[quote float=”right”]Unfortunately, the 2012 reports will not include base musician compensation.[/quote] Although the reports strive to provide as comprehensive an overview as possible between stakeholder compensation, the 2012 reports will not include base musician compensation figures.

This was an enormously difficult decision to make and up until the end of last week, efforts were underway to prevent this from happening but unfortunately, the source data for musician base compensation no longer meets minimum thresholds for reliability.

Understanding The Decision

To begin with, it is necessary to understand how base musician compensation figures are calculated.

There’s no need to feel unsure if the relationships seem a bit confusing. The connection between player conferences and the AFM can appear convoluted to outsiders due to the fact that each player conference is a semi-autonomous organization within the overall AFM structure. For example, they elect their own governing board, create and enforce their own bylaws, publish newsletters and websites, levy and collect membership dues, conduct annual conferences, and release public statements. All of these activities are independent of the AFM yet the conferences exist at the discretion of the AFM.

So when it comes to the Wage Charts, here’s an illustration behind how the process works.

It is important to point out at this juncture that each orchestra report installment here at Adaptistration includes the following disclaimer:

Adaptistration makes no claim to the accuracy of information from documents compiled or reported by external sources. If you have reason to believe any of the information is inaccurate or has changed since reported in any of the above sources and you can provide documentation to such effect, please feel free to submit a notice.

This has existed in large part due to the nature behind how the musician base compensation figures are compiled along with variables in how orchestras report other stakeholder compensation data in IRS Form 990s. Over the years, the data has been very accurate and very few alterations were needed.

Unfortunately, in the course of using musician compensation data for other projects, I have encountered numerous errors in the AFM Wage Charts beginning with data from the 2009/10 season. These errors are frequent enough that in order to have enough confidence in using the Wage Charts for the compensation reports, all of the data would require manual confirmation against each orchestra’s respective collective bargaining agreement.

This is not only an enormously time consuming task but one that would preclude the use of the Wage Charts to begin with. Nonetheless, efforts were set in motion to resolve the problem.

Attempts To Find A Solution

I contacted Joel LeFevre, Symphonic Services Division Contract Administrator, and Jay Blumenthal, Symphonic Services Division Director and AFM Assistant Treasurer, to inform them of the errors and attempt to find a solution.

If the [ICSOM and ROPA] delegates do not enter the correct data then the incorrect data is published, wrote LeFevre. There is no staff time to go through the agreements and verify that what is entered is correct. Delegates do go through the data and are asked to verify that it is correct. If a few delegates are not doing their job then that is unfortunate. Understand that the data is often correct at the time that it is entered – November through January- and adjustment do take place after the data is locked in.

Blumenthal provided additional insight into the data acquisition process and the relationship between SSD, ICSOM, and ROPA.

The Symphonic Services Division makes every effort to compile accurate information for these charts…We rely on the Symphonic Player Conference delegates to supply the Symphonic Services Division with current and accurate information.

When wage chart data is submitted to the Symphonic Services Division, the delegate submitting the information certifies that the information is accurate. If a delegate discovers that information from a prior year is inaccurate or discovers that some data is now available that was not available at an earlier posting time, they are given an opportunity to update the data set.

When asked if there are any plans in motion to carry out a certification process for data beginning with the 2009/10 season, Blumenthal’s response illustrates the complex relationship between the AFM and its player conferences.

We will make a point of reminding the delegates at the upcoming conferences that providing accurate information is critical to producing a document that can be relied upon during negotiations.

As a point of reference, ICSOM and ROPA typically schedule their respective conferences in August (ICSOM conference info and ROPA conference info).

Moving Forward

For the time being, the 2012 Compensation Reports (which encompass the 2009/10 season) will not include base musician compensation figures. However, the reports may be amended at a future date to once again incorporate the base musician compensation when and if the AFM and its player conferences conclude a thorough certification process for data compiled by ICSOM and ROPA delegates beginning with the 2009/10 season.

In the end, the value of including base musician compensation is great enough that attempts to find a solution to this problem were in motion up through the end of last week. But now that it has been confirmed that a confirmation process will not be conducted anytime in the immediate future, the compensation reports will need to be reformatted and edited before they can be published.

In order to implement those necessary changes, it is regrettable to inform readers that the reports will be delayed one week. As such, you can expect the 2012 installments to be published from Tuesday, 7/3/2012 through Friday, 7/6/2012.