Less pay, less job satisfaction

Press, 12 November 1985, Page 12

Less pay, less job satisfaction

NZPA-AP Washington

Most female journalists earn lower salaries than their male colleagues and have less job satisfaction, according to a University of Maryland study released recently.

The report — based on interviews with Maryland journalism graduates from 1951 to 1981 — said nearly 75 per cent of the male journalists were extremely or very satisfied with their jobs, compared with 63 per cent of the women.

Ninety-five per cent of those earning annual salaries over $76,500 were men, 70 per cent with in-

comes between $59,500 and $76,500 were men, and 61 per cent of journalists making $42,500 to $59,500 were men, the survey said. In the lower ranges, 64 per cent of journalists earning $25,500 to $42,500 were women, and 77 per cent earning $17,000 to $25,500 were women.

Male employers in news organisations give women lower job performance ratings than they give men, while female employers rank women workers significantly higher than did male employers, the study said. Female and male supervisors rated male and female workers evenly.

The study said 59 per cent of the journalism school population is female. Nevertheless, female graduates have had more difficulty than male graduates in moving ahead in the field of journalism, a University of Maryland associate professor and director of the study, Maurine Beasley, said.

She said low salaries in journalism may account for the decline in males being attracted to the profession.

“I think the industry has traded for years and years on romance,” she said. “But the lure of fun and challenge can lose out to finan-

cial considerations.” She also asserted that an increase in the numbers of wojnen could change the nature of news converage — with a greater emphasis on reporting social issues, and a possible lessening of what she termed .the “watchdog” function. “Journalism schools and management of news organisations must, change course to prevent the'field from

following such female; dominated professions as nursing, social work, library work, and teaching — jobs that pay lower salaries than male-dominated mail carrying, meat cutting, and plumbing,” she said.

Jack Nelson,-Washington bureau chief for the “Los Angeles Times” and a member of the Journalism Schools’ Board, said he did not expect journalism to be hurt by the increasing number of female journalists. “I don’t think women becoming a majority in journalism will in any way lower the standards, or have the effect of encouraging lower salaries,” he said in '

an. interview. “My impression js that it will be the opposite, that the women’s movement will raise salaries generally at smaller news organisations, which I think would be a good thing.” . . .