Granted, no one likes staring down the barrel of salary concessions, but I’m especially concerned about where things are going to fall for substitute musicians once the current round of collective bargaining agreements (CBAs) become public.
If early reports about The Met’s recent agreement are accurate, we’ll see the trend of shortchanging substitute musicians expand to paying incoming contract musicians less than their veteran colleagues.
With so much salary pain to share since the onset of the pandemic, it’s easy to forget that substitute musicians were already being paid less than their contracted peers at the majority of living wage orchestras. To that end, here are some articles from the last several years on the topic of substitute musician parity that you can use to help balance your perception.
