Minnesota Musicians Ratify Substitute Pay Disparity Through 2020

Adaptistration People 123

On 5/19/2015, the Musicians of the Minnesota Orchestra (MOMA) ratified a 3.5 year collective bargaining agreement (CBA) with their employer, the Minnesota Orchestra Association (MOA). The new agreement begins 2/1/2017 and expires on 8/31/2020; at the beginning of the 2019/20 season, the base musician annual salary with electronic music guarantee (EMG) will by $110,604 and the number of salaried musicians will increase to 94 (although the CBA continues to define the …

Read more

Equal Work For Equal Pay: An Orchestra Musician Third Rail Topic

Adaptistration People 149

One of the most common tasks in my consulting work with boards and administrators is adjusting preconceived notions about the musicians union. One of the reasons misconceptions are so common is the musicians’ unique level of self-determination and direct representation is in stark contrast to most other labor unions. A Fascinating History Beginning in the 1960s, orchestra musicians sought to displace the existing method for crafting collective bargaining agreements (CBA) by …

Read more

Broadening The Perspective On Equal Pay For Equal Work

Adaptistration People 062

When we started examining the topic of equal pay for equal work as applied to substitute orchestra musicians, otherwise known as parity, we compared the parity rate at US and Canadian orchestras in an article from 2/26/2014. At that time, just over two thirds of Canadian symphonic orchestras maintained parity, which was twice the rate of US ensembles. Unfortunately, I left out one important variable in that examination, the only professional …

Read more

Talking Equal Pay For Equal Work And The MN Substitute Disparity With Robert Levine On SoundNotion.TV

On 1/19/2015, Robert Levine and I discussed the implications of the 2014 Minnesota Orchestra collective bargaining agreement (CBA) provision that established a substitute musician per service rate at 90% of their full-time colleagues. The equal pay for equal work oriented discussion was streamed live on SoundNotion.TV at 10:00am ET and moderated by SN’s David MacDonald and Sam Merciers. I am grateful to both MacDonald and Merciers for not only taking the …

Read more

For MN Substitute Pay Disparity, No News Isn’t Good News

Adaptistration People 133

Following up on the One Year Later, Minnesota Orchestra Pay Disparity Continues To Elicit Strong Opinions article from 1/5/2015, I contacted both representatives from the Musicians of the Minnesota Orchestra (MOMA) along with Local 30-73, American Federation of Musicians (AFM), the regional office that represents the MN Orchestra musicians, to inquire whether or not there have been any efforts from either group to help alleviate or marginalize the impact of the disparity, …

Read more