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Reporters Sue Chicago Tribune for Alleged Pay Discrimination

The class-action claim seeks years of back pay for most Black and female journalists, totaling thousands of dollars.

A group of journalists filed a class-action lawsuit against their employer, the Chicago Tribune, alleging years of willful pay discrimination against Black and female employees. According to the suit, an independent analysis of newsroom salaries found that Black employees were paid 10 percent less than white colleagues and women were paid 10 percent less than men in similar roles. Black women were allegedly paid 20 percent less than white male journalists. The suit is seeking back pay for most Black and female reporters at the newspapers to remedy pay discrepancies amounting to tens of thousands of dollars each, and accuses the newspaper’s owners of “[fostering] a culture of secrecy surrounding the pay and salaries of their workforce.” It also claims that the newspaper’s stated efforts to recruit more diverse journalists through targeted programs are in reality “a source of cheap labor to depress the salaries of women and minority journalists.” A spokesman for the paper’s owner, the hedge fund Alden Group Capital, said the company had not yet reviewed the suit.