One Year Later, Minnesota Orchestra Pay Disparity Continues To Elicit Strong Opinions

Adaptistration Guy 115

The Best And Worst Of 2014 article from 12/31/2014 generated a great deal of reader response on the item related to the Minnesota Orchestra Pay Disparity and given that it is nearly one year since this issue transpired, it is high time to revisit the issue and see what may have transpired. For those unaware or those who may be fuzzy on the details, here are the highlights: The agreement which …

Read more

Compared To US Peers, Canadian Orchestras Have Better Substitute Pay Rate Parity

Canadian vs US parity

Following up on yesterday’s article about substitute musician pay rate disparity among US orchestras, I thought it would be interesting to see if there were any differences in how Canadian orchestras approach the issue; and based on the data, it appears there’s quite a bit of difference. Just over two thirds of Canadian symphonic orchestras compensate substitute musicians at the same per-service rate of pay as contracted musicians. In case you …

Read more

The Data Behind Substitute Pay Rates

Adaptistration People 177

Throughout the series of posts about the substitute musician pay disparity at the Minnesota Orchestra Association there were a number of reader comments asserting anecdotal evidence over how common the practice was among professional orchestras. Since then, I’ve taken the time to evaluate the data and have uncovered some fascinating information. Before diving into the figures, it is important to understand how they were processed. For instance, most orchestras pay substitute …

Read more

Resolving The Pay Disparity In Minnesota

Adaptistration People 125

Although specific details have yet to be released, media reports have confirmed the new master agreement ratified by the Minnesota Orchestra Association (MOA) and its musicians contains a provision to pay substitute musicians 90 percent of the contracted musicians’ base scale rate, thereby requiring subs to shoulder a disproportionately larger share of salary concessions than their contracted colleagues. There has been a great deal of conversation here and throughout social media …

Read more

Don’t Expect Details Anytime Soon

Adaptistration People 136

According to Gwen Pappas, Minnesota Orchestra Association’s (MOA) Director of Public Relations, it may take “several weeks” for the organization’s new collective bargaining agreement (CBA) to be released. Pappas was the first to respond to requests for a copy of the CBA and at the time this post was written, a musician representative has yet to reply. At the same time, follow-up questions to the MOA about whether or not the …

Read more