Met Singers Asked To Take 16% Pay Cut
Grappling with declining box office income, high labor costs and a shrinking endowment, the Metropolitan Opera has proposed that the chorus singers accept pay cuts of roughly 16 percent, fourfold increases to their health care deductibles and reduced contributions to their pensions. The Met says it must reduce labor costs, which account for two-thirds of its expenses, to stay afloat. It says the proposed changes would mean that the singers, who earned an average of $200,000 each last season, would earn about $170,000. The American Guild of Musical Artists, the union that represents the chorus, says the changes would cut far deeper and has urged the Met to trim what it describes as wasteful spending instead. In other words, are the top executives at the Met also willing to take 16% pay cuts?
