Salary Boost at Two NYC PLs

Library wages at New York City's three public library systems are notoriously low for the cost of living, with librarians starting at $35,563, but two of the systems—the Brooklyn Public Library (BPL) and the Queens Borough Public Library (QBPL)—in July announced new compensation plans aimed to upgrade employees quickly to new classifications and thus higher salaries.

"Low salaries have made it difficult to recruit and retain librarian staff," wrote BPL director Ginnie Cooper in a memo to staff.

In the plan she announced, library associates will be upgraded to library associate IA after one year ($1,526 increase); librarians will be upgraded to senior librarian I after one year ($3,135); senior librarians (nonsupervisory) will be upgraded to senior librarian IA after six months ($1,935); senior librarians (supervisory) are immediately upgraded to senior librarian II ($2,830) and after six months to senior librarian III ($2,076); supervising librarians will be upgraded to supervising librarian II after six months ($2,758); principal librarians (Central only) will be upgraded to principal librarian IA after six months ($2,494); and principal librarians II (cluster leader) will be upgraded to principal librarian III after six months ($2,743).

Thomas Galante, interim director at QBPL, announced a similar plan. The union at the third system, the New York Public Library (NYPL), requested an immediate labor management meeting "to close the very large wage disparity" between NYPL and the other two systems. Local 1930 president Ray Markey noted that NYPL had already created a track to promote new librarians to senior positions after nine months but had not matched the other promotion opportunities in Queens and Brooklyn.

"I think it's very farsighted," Markey said of the moves made by Cooper and Galante. NYPL spokeswoman Caroline Oyama said the library had no immediate comment on the issue.