Gustavo and the latino/black caucus at LAtimes
https://twitter.com/LATBlackCaucus/status/1328105571896082433
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There was absolutely nothing about the way Bill and Patricia were presented by the Times (and, it looks like, not communicated to either of them ever) to show that she was somehow junior to him. Very bad form.
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Bill Addison has been a restaurant critic since 2002, and previously worked at the SF Chronicle (where he was nominated for a James Beard award), Dallas Morning News, Atlanta Magazine, and as as restaurant editor and national critic at Eater, where he won a James Beard award. The LA Times had to make a competitive offer.
Patricia EscĂĄrcega started writing for the Phoenix New Times in 2015 and the Arizona Republic in 2018. She doesnât have anywhere near the experience or stature to command the same pay as Addison. Did her managers at the Times really suggest otherwise?
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yes. thatâs her assertion. She didnât know she was classified as a junior critic and was told by managers that they were equal co-critics.
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I understand your point, but the issue is the lack of transparency here. I know in my job both what level I am at and the range and average salary for people at my level. It appears that the LA Times management both did not communicate at all to Bill and Patricia that there was a Senior/Junior aspect to the critics (not to mention that when their hires were announced, it was as a âtwo critics replacing JGold,â not âBill Addison is the senior critic and Patricia Escarcega is the junior criticâ) and did not provide the expected salary levels (something a little more forgivable)
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While on paper it might seem like she is less experienced, I think the point of having a native from SoCal who grew up with her unique experience/perspective is its own kind of expertise. I am sure Bill Addison throwing his support behind her as co-critic is in consideration of this fact.
This might be worth reading if you havenât already.
Especially relevant:
If 2019 Patricia could give advice to 2009 Patricia, what would it be?
Itâs getting better, but food journalism still has a pervasive race and class problem. I would tell my younger self that itâs OK not to fit the mold of what might seem like a traditional food critic. Iâm not white or male. My family didnât travel much and we very rarely ate out. We didnât have the money for it. Feeling like an outsider isnât exactly fun, but it affords you insights. So the advice I would give to my younger self is the same advice I would give to any insecure kid with big dreams but maybe no conventional pedigree: Speak up. There are things you know that other people donât. You have a point of view and it needs to be heard.
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Given the disorder at the LA Times in general and in the food section in particular, that might have happened.
Though frankly I think youâd have to be an idiot to expect that after three years experience in Phoenix youâd get the same pay as someone with a resume like Bill Addisonâs.
And she was clearly the junior critic in the sense that Addison reviewed almost all the high-profile/ expensive / expensively-hyped places.
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I invite you to ask yourself why you feel the need to call a Latinx woman at the top of her field an âidiotâ for expecting to be paid fairly for doing the same work as her co-critic.
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I mean, the guy they were taking over for literally made his name by reviewing low-profile/cheap places. I donât think anything is âclearâ unless it is explicitly called out, which it was not in this case.
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this comment is uncalled for and ludicrous. Youâre doing exactly what she described in her statement: " weaponizing the concept of âprestigeâ in order to try to get away with paying someone the biggest pay gap"
they both interviewed for the same position and the paper advertised them as co-critics so of course she should expect to be payed the same. If its the same job, they should get the same ( or commiserate) pay. Period.
Internally, unbeknownst to them, they were categorized as senior and junior. hence, the problem.
Where i work, thereâs 3 internship positions every year. They all do the same work and have the same expectations. Candidates interview for them knowing full well the pay is the same regardless how long their linkedin resumes are or how prestigeous they think they are.
clearly your subjective opinion and as we all know in LA, how high profile/expensive or hyped a place is doesnât mean squat.
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Exactly! Iâve worked along side many companies food and non and been the manager of people more âseniorâ than me in tenure with little issue. And itâs not just about experience⌠Itâs what you bring to the table. If the expectations and title were the same, then the expectation of a similar rate of pay should be. Itâs not that she expected the SAME pay. Itâs that she expected commiserate pay. Not for what she did in the past, but what she was bringing to the Times moving forward. Which honestly, as much as I loved JGold⌠was a much needed.
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Yeah letâs not go there. I work in digital media and experience only goes so far (especially once youâre in the door). In all of the LA Timesâ external comms they were both being advertised as co-critics, and not in the sense that the âseniorâ critic does the fine dining and the âjuniorâ one takes the cheap eats, a la NY Times. Iâve seen the job openings and they were coded as the same title. Plus, part of hiring Patricia (and Meehan, ha) was to give the section a younger voice, one more appealing to a POC audience.
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The Times has to pay Addison more money than somebody with three or four years experience in one city because he wouldnât have taken the job otherwise. If EscĂĄrcega had said when they were interviewing her that she expected to get the same salary and expense account, theyâd have laughed and hired one of the 25 or 50 other critics at her level.
She wasnât doing the same work, Addison was handling the high-profile / expensive / expensively-hyped places. He was also simply doing more work: last year he had 82 bylines including 51 reviews, she had 60 bylines including 35 reviews.
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According to Addison and Escacerga (I believe in one of their weekend newsletters or in the intro of their annual list - someone correct me here) they merely called dibs on a restaurant to not overlap, not that Addison was assigned the more high-profile ones. I even pondered the same question upon their respective hirings because I thought that may have been the case. Also, part of Escacergaâs inactivity this year may have been attributed to this ongoing matter (LAT may have sidelined her until they finished their âinvestigationâ).
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My only (tangential) experience w/ this kind of stuff is HR in the public sector. And, disclaimer, Iâm not a lawyer.
Regardless of how they were presented to the public or what job they interviewed for, the jobs that they ultimately accepted (including the salary) presumably was assigned some sort of formal job title. When @bruins mentions that the issue is one of transparency, I think, to a certain extent, that is the only legal issue.
Itâs not like people who are new to a job generally ask their colleague about their official job tiles and responsibilities, so thereâs really no way Patricia wouldâve known about being jr to Bill unless someone had specifically informed her of that⌠which apparently no one had done.
For me, personally, itâs not an issue of whether she should be jr or not. Itâs that she was apparently was never told this. Ethically reprehensible. But I assume the LAT is probably not going to have any legal issues (and thus may feel little motivation to rectify the situation).
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she had a baby and was on maternity leaveâŚso canât base it on purely the volume of reviews/bylines. furthermore, she commented that she faced months of âicy indifference and abusiveâ behavior from her former managers⌠maybe that had something to do with ones productivity at work, esp if she wasnât the favored one by Meehan and co.
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This. If weâre taking Escacerga at her word (and I am), then this is the (legal) issue here.
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Patricia was also out on maternity due to being pregnant so of course she wonât have as many bylines
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Keep in mind that Bylines isnât the only measurement of content creation that LATimes have, especially in this day and age.
Having lots of experience on the M&A side of things, payroll reconciliations and title alignments are a serious thing because of lawsuit potential.
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