The Pittsburgh Symphony and its musicians reached an agreement three months ahead of schedule. Not good news for some Mt. Lebanon residents.
The contract, ratified Saturday night, calls for a 9.7-percent across-the-board cut in musicians' salary in its first and second years -- one of the biggest wage reductions in orchestra's history. Annual base salary will be $100,110, down from $110,764 this season, but musicians paid above scale will give back more.Read more: http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/11163/1153286-388.stm
2 comments:
That salary reduction is more than $18 a month.
Sarah Morris
At least the Symphony faced reality and cut the costs of what is probably its largest cost component...people...and recognized that its traditional revenue sources were constrained and declining.
The school district on the other hand, where the people cost constitutes 75% of total operating costs (teachers alone account for 75% of that 75%) has the ability to tax and raise taxes to support pay increases that average twice the CPI rate of inflation on average over time....the PDE, whose stated mission is to facilitate the plans of school districts, provides easy to obtain waivers and exemptions to otherwise tax increase limitations in the flawed, loophole-ridden PA Act 1.
And here is what we have in Lebo...District real estate tax revenues are growing at twice the rate of overall earned income taxes, a trend which is just not sustainable. Maybe some Symphony members living in Lebo might even agree with this now that their incomes are constrained like so many others in the private sector, including the senior population.
Bill Lewis
Post a Comment