Income Inequality on the Central Coast is a major problem. Our area is beautiful, but expensive, and wages in many industries do not keep up with our cost of living. The “Out of Reach Report”, published annually for every community in the United States, announced in June of 2020 that the housing wage for San Luis Obispo ZIP code 93405 (where KSBY is located) is $37.69 per hour.

The wages at KSBY have fallen behind the cost of living over and over again. The majority of our group are paid less than $17 per hour. It hasn’t helped that our TV station has been sold a number of times over the last few years. Now we are owned by Scripps Broadcasting. We have a union (NABET-CWA) to represent many of the behind-the-scenes workers that make our station run: Directors for the news shows, Producers (news and commercial), News Photographers, Broadcast Engineers who maintain and repair the equipment, and Operators who switch programs in Master Control. This summer we started negotiations for a new contract. Because of the pandemic and travel restrictions, the negotiations have been held via Zoom.

Our proposals, generated by members and our Union leadership over a year of meetings, have tried to solve income inequality. We proposed to Scripps that new employees should make at least $5 over minimum wage (currently $12 per hour, up to $13 on January 1, 2021), and that employees with years of service to the station should get more pay to recognize their years (and decades) of service to KSBY.  Their sustained service has allowed the station to serve our community better by preventing them from having to hire and train replacements many times over. But the profits generated by our good work have not been shared with us – they have been sent to distant corporations that are located elsewhere.

KSBY’s proposals offer pennies not dollars in raises. They offer to adjust our base pay, but nowhere near enough money to bring us to the Housing Wage. That is where you (the public) come in! We have asked for a raise, our Union has asked for a raise, and now we want our community to join with our voices and demand that we receive a wage that we can live on. Many of us are long term residents of the Central Coast, and we know that the Price of Paradise (the campaign KSBY launched in early 2020 to show the income inequality of the central coast) is high.