As NYPL Leaders' Salaries Rise, Union Complains About Tuition Cuts

-- Library Journal, 11/28/2006

While the New York Public Library (NYPL) has been raising the salaries of top managers, employees are grumbling—and that made for a prominent article in the November 19 New York Times, under the headline "New York Library Officials' Pay? Shhh". Subsequent to the article, NYPL Guild Local 1930 president Lynne Taylor told LJ that NYPL management were guilty of "paying themselves huge amounts of money," while tuition reimbursements have been cut from $6000 to $3300 for those seeking an LIS degree and from $3000 to $1500 for undergraduate work. While the tuition cuts, which affected 60 library graduate school trainees, totaled just $162,000, Susan Kent, director and chief executive of the branch libraries, earns $302,484, a jump of about $59,200 more than the previous director. Catherine Carver Dunn, a senior vice president handling fundraising, communications, and government relations, was paid $322,729, an increase of almost $90,000 over four years.

The union is in the midst of negotiating a contract retroactive to July 1, 2005. At stake is a total 9.42 percent compounded wage increase over approximately 32 months. Another hot issue is the restoration of cuts made to the tuition assistance program. Below the $6000 figure, Taylor said, "you can't possibly go to library school in New York City." The latest cut, she added, was announced in the middle of a summer session, retroactive to July 1, meaning that students already enrolled were effectively penalized without warning. A 3.15 percent raise retroactive to July 1, 2005 was released on November 13, just before the union threatened to protest outside a library gala. A union grievance filed over the tuition assistance cuts, however, is still pending.

NYPL said in a statement, "The level of tuition assistance provided by the Library has fluctuated over the years. However, we are pleased that we are still able to provide support that will fund an MLS degree in full or contribute substantially to the cost, depending on the program."

In the November 26 New York Times, NYPL Chairwoman Catherine Marron responded, "Contrary to the implication of your headline, the New York Public Library has always been open about its compensation practices; indeed, we provide a link from our Web site to a source for our tax returns, which include this information in full.

We are unified in our belief that the top management team we have attracted to the library is largely responsible for successfully seeing us through the difficult financial times we experienced after 9/11.

Competitive compensation is necessary to attract and keep the best people."