Gray Raises Minimum Hourly Wage

The employees at Gray Television got an internal memo that announced that the company is raising the minimum hourly wage that they pay to $18 an hour.

Here is the memo, obtained by FTVLive:

From: GrayTV - HR Communications
Sent: Monday, August 29, 2022 10:01 AM
Subject: Gray Television Raises Its Minimum Hourly Wage

Fellow Gray Television Employees:

 We are excited to announce that we are raising the minimum wage to $18 per hour for about 2,000 Gray Television employees.

 Specifically, all full-time, permanent, non-contracted employees of Gray Television, Inc. and its wholly owned subsidiaries will be paid a minimum hourly wage of $18 per hour.  Non-contracted employees are those individuals whose employment is not subject to either an individual employment agreement or a collective bargaining agreement.  (In such cases, the terms of the applicable agreement will apply.)  This new policy does not apply to those employees who are compensated in whole or in part through sales commissions.

 The new minimum wage will become effective on October 1, 2022.  Currently, many employees receive annual raises on the anniversary of their start date with Gray or a predecessor business acquired by Gray, while others typically receive annual raises on the first day of the calendar year.  We are overriding those “pay change dates” with this announcement, such that no one subject to the new $18 minimum wage floor will need to wait until their historic pay change date to receive the wage.  Instead, all employees subject to the new wage floor will be assigned a new “pay change date” of October 1st going forward.

 The HR team will work closely with station management to identify and implement necessary raises. GMs and Office Managers will receive specific instructions to make sure that all eligible employees are updated appropriately.  As a result, no one impacted by this announcement will need to complete any forms or otherwise take any action to receive the increased pay.  If you have any questions about this increase, please contact your manager or hr@gray.tv. 

 We very much appreciate the great work that everyone is doing all across this company!  Your efforts ensure that 2022 will be another historic year for Gray Television, and we are grateful that you are part of our success!

 Gray’s Senior Leadership

While that is great news for a Production Assitant or a paid intern, I would hope that all Journalists at Gray are making more than the Gray minimum. I would also hope that those that are making say $20 an hour currently, see a little bump as well.

It is time to pay Journalists better and you will get better Journalists.