Talent   //   October 3, 2024

WTF is a salary floor?

Pay transparency laws are making employers get clearer about potential salaries in job postings to candidates. But few offer an exact amount, instead giving wide ranges and leaving candidates confused, and wondering what factors could drive a $50,000 pay difference for someone in the same role. 

It also comes as the ever-increasing cost of living is making it harder for workers to get by, leading many to turn to gig work, side hustles, or just to look for other jobs with better pay. Meanwhile wage growth continues to slow, with increases next year expected to be at 3.5%, down from 3.6% in 2024 and 4% in 2023, according to data from Payscale.

A small share of employers are making their pay policies ​​— and commitment to pay equity ​​— extra clear, though with salary floors. A salary floor dictates that no employee at a company gets paid less than a set amount. 

The 19th News, an independent, non-profit news organization founded in 2020 has a $70,000 salary floor. It’s based in Austin, Texas, where the average salary for a journalist is about $57,000, according to data from Ziprecruiter.

As a news organization, the salary floor is a key differentiator for job seekers, said Jayo Miko Macasaquit, chief people officer. But it also speaks to some of the company’s key values as an organization focused on women’s and LGBTQ+ causes. 

“Why should it depend on the person, how you apply a policy or not? And it does favor folks who are more willing to negotiate, or more open and more confident in negotiating.”
Jayo Miko Macasaquit, chief people officer of the 19th News.

Across industries, women and other workers from underrepresented groups experience wide pay gaps when compared to their white male counterparts. Working women in the U.S. were paid about 83 cents for every dollar white, non-hispanic men made in 2020, according to a report from the Center for American Progress. Black women make 64 cents on average compared to men.

When it comes to wide ranges in salary postings, “Why should it depend on the person, how you apply a policy or not?” Miko Macasaquit said. “And it does favor folks who are more willing to negotiate, or more open and more confident in negotiating.”

The 19th News is in the process of formalizing its pay policies but intends to boost the salary floor to stay in line with cost of living increases, said Miko Macasaquit

“The idea is that we revise it every year with the budget year. We’re doing that anyway in terms of making sure that we revise our benchmarks for each of our roles on a yearly basis to make sure that they match the market,” he said. 

CHANI, an astrology app and media company, has an $80,000 salary floor. The queer-feminist tech company is based in Los Angeles, a city with one of the highest costs of living in the U.S., so the floor is based on that, said Sonya Passi, cofounder and CEO. “We just made it a thing at the company that we wouldn’t pay less than that,” she said. 

Passi is also co-founder and CEO of a national nonprofit dedicated to supporting survivors of gender-based violence, called Free From. A key goal of the organization is “building pathways to safety for survivors of gender violence through economic security,” Passi said.

“One of the things that we push for at Free From is a living wage for survivors. We believe that no one can afford safety on less than a living wage,” she said.