Six months after she started, Macmillan raised its starting wage to $35,000. “I was so thrilled; I remember being so grateful. Oh my god, $2,000 more a year,” she says. “And now I feel like, after actually trying to live on that for years now, it’s just not sustainable. It affects the way you live your life.”
When she started in publishing, Miller made her salary work by sharing an apartment in Brooklyn’s Bed-Stuy neighborhood with four other roommates. Now, she lives with her partner in Central Jersey. “I commute an hour and a half to get here,” she says. (During non-strike times, HarperCollins requires employees to work from the office at least two days per week.) “And it still feels worth it to work in this industry.”
That’s the general refrain from those on the picket line: Wages are too low in publishing, but the workers still love it there.
The more you love the job the less you’ll get paid to do it. Because some goodly part of your compensation is coming in the joy not the cash.
Simple enough…..
Publishing as an industry is 76 percent white, and its notoriously low starting salaries are part of what keeps it that way.
Readers are also overwhelmingly white. Deontay and Diego don’t buy very many books.
Many of the striking workers, though, are used to living on low wages. When Miller got her first job as a sales assistant at HarperCollins rival Macmillan in 2018, she was paid $33,000 a year. “I didn’t negotiate because I didn’t think I could,” she says.
If this is the calibre of sales person they’re hiring, it’s a mystery why publishing is in financial trouble.
I didn’t get paid very much, but had to pretend to love my job.
During one of the last “musical chairs” promotion rounds, I was asked what it was that fuelled my passion for the organisation. I replied that although I really enjoyed working there, “passion” was a term I normally reserved for the excesses of sexual pleasure and the sufferings of Christ upon the cross.
Anyway, the lady down the job-centre was very understanding…
“Readers are also overwhelmingly white. Deontay and Diego don’t buy very many books.”
Also, Diego doesn’t have rich parents.
It’s like the people who work in computer games are overwhelmingly white, generally childless. The Ashoks are being corporate whores writing Java for the man and driving the kids to cricket practice.
(see also: why newspapers are full of poshos, women and gays).
BoM4 – Yarp, the Ashoks have the right idea.
But you see the problem woke entryists have in publishing. It’s traditionally a niche for far left nutcases, but being a gatekeeper for Big Books doesn’t pay very much and they feel like they’re entitled to earn a good living deciding what you can and can’t read.
To add insult to injury, Diverse authors (unless they’re called Liu Cixin) habitually struggle to sell enough books to cover the cost of a skinny latte, but JK Rowling is richer than King Solomon’s wildest dreams of gold.
It’s not FAIR.
Sam Vara,
“During one of the last “musical chairs” promotion rounds, I was asked what it was that fuelled my passion for the organisation. I replied that although I really enjoyed working there, “passion” was a term I normally reserved for the excesses of sexual pleasure and the sufferings of Christ upon the cross.”
This stopped for me when I went from working for a great boss to working for a total arsehole. I’d worked for someone for 6 years, really built a place, was trusted, did great work, loved my job, and it was all destroyed in months. I’ve been a whore ever since. I’m not passionate or dedicated to your organisation. It’s a simple, short-term exchange of cash for work. The only way I would be passionate towards an organisation is if it was a startup that I owned a large chunk of, and have some control over what is going to happen.
“If I had started my career at $50,000, I would be in maybe half as much credit card debt,”
If only you had chosen a major and job that had $50,000 starting salary. Given your decision history, you probably would still have the credit card debt. Employers pay what you are worth to them, not what you think you are worth.
During non-strike times, HarperCollins requires employees to work from the office at least two days per week.
Oh the inhumanity.
The company likes to pat themselves on the back and say that in the last fiscal year, 80 percent of their new hires were from marginalized communities.
And how is that working out? Actually I’m surprised that any normies made it through let alone 20%
Sam – that’s why sales people feel sorry for normies.
Nobody expects or wants you to pretend to be “passionate” about corporate drudgery when you’re in sales.
Sales Director: Conan, what is best in life?
Conan the Business Development Manager: To outsell your enemies, drive the customer’s budget into your payslip, and hear the lamentations of your salaried colleagues.
John – the SNP recently decided to promote people from “marginalised communities”. Now every single one of their elected representatives is either gay or “disabled”.
“To add insult to injury, Diverse authors (unless they’re called Liu Cixin) habitually struggle to sell enough books to cover the cost of a skinny latte, but JK Rowling is richer than King Solomon’s wildest dreams of gold.”
I think the Harry Potter stories are rubbish in all sorts of ways. But success in writing is more about the sort of thing you write about than whether it’s a good version. Kids love stories about boarding schools, and they love magic.
It’s like The Fast and the Furious films are laser cut for the people who go to the movies. The biggest movie audience is men people from about 15-25. They want to see hot girls, tough guys, fights, car chases, explosions and bling. You can make the best fucking drama about middle aged women who work in an Amazon warehouse, they are never going to go and see it.
Thirty grand a year and she’s struggling and up to her eyeballs in debt? WTF is she throwing away her money on? She’s at 120% of median income, and almost twice what I get doing skilled technical engineering work.
My old boss used to say, “if you enjoyed it, we wouldn’t have to pay you so much”
Hey at BoM4
“the best fucking drama about middle aged women who work in an Amazon warehouse”
I saw that one and enjoyed it… what does it say about me?
I would watch a drama about middle aged women working in an Amazon warehouse if it was directed by David Lynch.
I’d rather see what Ken Russell or David Cronenberg could do with that source material…
‘what does it say about me?’ Not enough people like you go to the movies?
But, as BoM4 points out, this is the real problem that these enlightened aristocrats have when writing books. They have to write what the buyer will pay to read. Not what they want to say.
@ Steve
“It’s not FAIR.”
If life was fair then all the shit that happens to you, you deserve…
A drama about middle aged women working in an Amazon warehouse directed by Rocco might get some interest.
Steve,
‘Deontay and Diego don’t buy very many books.’
Diego buys books but D’eontay (you forgot the apostrophe) can’t even fucking read.
I’ve loved and been amused by the comments, but I don’t understand what the costs are in different parts of the US. If I convert the salary one-for-one to £, then I can see that there are places in the UK where one could live on it, and places where you would struggle.
Part of the problem is that there isn’t an immediate pro rata correlation between gross salary and take home pay. Sure, there is in the UK a tax free amount, and then all the rest (for a £33k salary) is not only taxed at 20%, but there’s National Insurance (social security) on top, and for some employees a pension contribution to take into account. I’m sure that there are similar things in the US. Changes in any one of the deductions affect the take-home pay, and even if you get the same, then there are costs for going to work which may affect the real remuneration for doing so.
Basically, I think that it’s complicated.
There’s also a world of difference between a starting salary and a ‘career average’ salary, especially when the start is on a scale that brings with it annual increments of pay as well as ‘cost of living’ increases (as in most Govt jobs). If the scale (or scales, with jumps) rises to nearly £100k, then it’s worth struggling to start with.
I can see £33k being tough to live on in the London suburbs, to commute to the centre, and to pay off a student loan, but it would be glorious money for someone living in the parental home, out in the sticks, aged 18.
The only way I would be passionate towards an organisation is if it was a startup that I owned a large chunk of, and have some control over what is going to happen.
Many, many years ago I worked for an organisation owned by a couple of Fezziwig types. Very much a family affair. During tough times the Directors would take pay cuts rather than fire lowly plodders from the bookkeeping dept. When the old boys died off the company transitioned to what we now view the modern world, non-core support outsourced. Profits were maximised and split between front line staff. I benefitted but missed the communal values. Many of those we disposed of ended up in local government or similar. Inevitably we paid increased taxes to keep these people gainfully employed, but lost – outsourced – that societal connection.
Trick – True, it comforts me somewhat when filling out my HMRC self assessment to remember that I probably deserve Hell.
BiC – Cracking fighter tho. The Gypsy King v Deontay Wilder bouts were some of the craziest fights I’ve ever seen outside a Rocky film or a pub in Glasgow.
“The more you love the job the less you’ll get paid to do it. Because some goodly part of your compensation is coming in the joy not the cash.”
A moment’s thought will demonstrate this is not true. Or am I missing the point again?
You’re entirely missing the point. Why do most actors, most musicians, get paid absolutely nothing for being on stage? Because it’s fun to be onstage. Same with most sportsmen. Sure, there’s a tiny percentage of each that make big bucks. But the vast majority of all gain nothing except the enjoyment. Collecting the bins is hard and unenjoyable work. Folk get a decent wedge for doing that.
“Collecting the bins is hard and unenjoyable work. Folk get a decent wedge for doing that.”
What sort of wedge?
A number infinitely higher than that got by unpaid actors.
“The more you love the job the less you’ll get paid to do it.”
I don’t think thats true. I bet there are people who really love their work and happen to be in a sphere thats well paid as well. I mean I bet the CEOs of multinational corporations love being a master of the universe, and they get well remunerated. Heck I love what I do, and I make a decent wedge at it. Ergo your statement is not true. It might be the way to bet, but its not a universal truth.
Igneri, 35, is just shy of a year into working as a sanitation worker for New York City. He starts his day at 4:30 a.m., commutes from Staten Island to Brooklyn, and works from 6 a.m. to 2 p.m. clearing the city’s streets of garbage. Sometimes he’ll take a second shift for a few hours of overtime pay, paid at time-and-a-half, especially during the busy winter season when he and his crew plow the streets of snow.
It’s a physically demanding job, but one Igneri hopes to work until retirement. He currently earns a base salary of $44,000 per year before overtime and expects to nearly double his earnings with guaranteed pay raises over the next five years.
https://www.cnbc.com/2022/04/06/on-the-job-earning-44000-a-year-as-a-sanitation-worker-in-new-york.html
NYC seems the correct comparator, given the book workers are in NYC.
“If I had started my career at $50,000, I would be in maybe half as much credit card debt,”
I call bullshit. You’re in debt because you can’t manage your finances.
Making $50K rather than $35K won’t end your problem. You have a ton of credit card debt because you spent $12 when you had $10 in your pocket. All that having $15 in your pocket would mean is that you’d spend $18 instead of $12.
“A number infinitely higher than that got by unpaid actors.”
You know Tim your comments don’t make sense.
“A number infinitely higher than that got by unpaid actors.”
I ask you about bin men”s wages and you start commenting on unpaid actors. You cretin.
It really would help if you’d read some Adam Smith. For he does point out that wages – these days we’d add for a skill level sorta caveat – tend to be about the same for different jobs. Just that the rewards come in different ways. Enjoyable jobs pay less cash, more enjoyment. “Noisesome” – back then it meant smelly more than anything else – jobs pay higher cash wages.
So, folk work in book publishing and absolutely love it. IV’d into the cultural powerhouse etc. So, cash pay is bad. In that same city the dustbin men gain twice the cash payment of the book folk. Adam Smith wins again.
The reference to actors is an extreme example of the idea. Folk love being up on the stage. Done it myself as a musician. It’s right grand I tell ‘ee. Which is why the pay, except for the very favoured few, is shite.
Now, I lay that all out for you. Further, it’s not controversial in the slightest, it’s the standard story. Your response is to call me a cretin.
Well done you, I’m sure your intellect just sparkles the ladies at cocktail parties what with the witty repartee. You might need a little work on being able to understand points made to you tho’.
@Tim I’ve always thought it was was part current enjoyment and part expected future returns (both cash and jollies). While junior roles in stage/screen may offer a buzz, entry level in advertising is hit or miss and graduate roles in law or stockbroking are properly awful.
Where would you rate publishing in that continuum?
Publishing, absent being an actual partner of someone who has a hit, has always – but always – been appallingly paid in cash returns. On the other hand you are – well, were – right in the middle of the big city, asked absolutely everywhere by the sort of important and intellectual people who would like to get published etc. Also, get into the network and you can get proper pissed for free Mon through Thurs night at launch parties. A considerable saving on young folk budgets.
It used to be – used – that publishing was tremendous fun. And, yes, I know we shouldn’t say this these days, but a significant opportunity for hypergamy among the largely young birds who did it.
How many CEOs that “love their job” would do it for median wage?
No-one would take that level of stress and hours but for money.
Top earners love the money and power, no doubt. But the work? No chance.
Tim you said “The more you love the job the less you’ll get paid to do it. Because some goodly part of your compensation is coming in the joy not the cash.”
I pointed out this was not as you say “One Of Those Grand Economic Truths.”
You disagree and bring in items such as thr pay of bin men and unpaid (I kid you not) actors. You are losing it sunshine.
As for cretin it’s a word you frequently use along with fuckwit tosser etc. What’s your language like with the ladies at cocktail parties?
Thanks Tim.
Hypergamy is also such a lovely (but unfortunately abstract for us older geeks) word and concept!
Ah, I see. You just wish to vent rather than actually address or think about the points being made. Well, it’s your reading experience, do as you wish.
As to language, I tend not to call hosts cretins. Reduces that possibility of another drink, see – incentives matter?
The more you love the job the less you’ll get paid to do it. Because some goodly part of your compensation is coming in the joy not the cash.
Presumably there’s a supply and demand mechanism behind this. Lots of youngsters (esp girlies) want to be vets or assistant vets (cos furry cuddles) so lots train up and head in that direction. There being more labour supply than demand for that task, wages are driven down for all, to the point that furry cuddles become the prime reward. TikTok doesn’t pay much, either.
Are there sufficient weirdos to keep undertaking pay down?
They didn’t need to pay a lot for divers on N Sea oilfields. About twice minimum wage for a 12 hour 7 day shift.
Once you were in the bin it was about twice a bank manager’s screw.
But obviously some people are just attracted by the risk of getting dead. And prepared to spend time not getting nookie.
I was looking some shit up today. In a declining industry (oil refining) average pay is 135 grand. That’s in some relatively deprived areas such as the Humber, Grangemouth, Pembroke. Compare some geezer there in a boiler suit and high viz with some totty in expensive London publishing job…
I loved my job when I was consulting and got some very serious money for it. On the other hand I was working away Monday to Friday if it was Europe and 3 to 4 weeks in Asia or Americas. When I was at work 60+ hour weeks weren’t unusual.
I’ll also be the first to admit that there were lots of people could have done the job better than me, I knew some before I moved in to consultancy, but they weren’t prepared to put up with the travelling.
I recall an article about people recruited into MI5, doing otherwise intolerably menial and boring filing work, but who stayed because of the thrill of being part of the famous counter-intelligence agency.
The basic theory is correct; but the New York bin-man example is flawed. He is paid well because he’s in a union. Unionised jobs in America pay well; doubly so when backed by the taxpayer.
I suppose the obvious one’s people go in the military. There’s people being shot at making money similar to hers.
@philip
“They didn’t need to pay a lot for divers on N Sea oilfields. About twice minimum wage for a 12 hour 7 day shift.”
I don’t think that’s true for sat divers in the North sea, they make very good money (I remember hearing a grand a day or thereabouts). They get paid well partly because of the danger, but mainly because the work they do is always project critical. If your billion pound investment project is relying on one guy underwater with a spanner, you want him to get it right quickly. Dive Support Vessels can cost £150k/day, everyone’s pretty keen that the divers aren’t delaying things.
Aberdeen bloke
Yes, about a grand a day, but only about 100 days a year in the bin, even for the most experienced. And they are unionised. (The RMT got to represent us and at first my wages went down! Grrr!)
As I say, compare average wage of 135 grand p.a. at a refinery, also unionised, but employing drongoes in boiler suits.