Posted by Mark Heter on August 07, 2003 at 08:02:50:
In Reply to: Re: Re: Symphony wages posted by adonis on August 05, 2003 at 19:40:08:
Please refer back to my earlier post on this subject.
It's important to look at the entire wage and benefits package - not just the wages.
Many symphony employers make contributions into the AFM-EP Fund on behalf of their employees. This is a "portable" benefit, in that the Fund is a multi-employer pension fund. That means if you start with a small orchestra that participates, and move up to a larger orchestra which also partcicpates, your pension benefits move up with you. This is significantly different from internal pensions and 401-K plans.
Also, there is the business of medical coverage - extremely important o know about as well.
If you look at most labor negotiations in the past 10 years, the issues have centered around preservation of fringe benefits - medical plans and pensions - and THEN job security as priorities.
These issues are very much the same when it comes to teaching jobs as well.
If you are serious about this subject, I caution you not to examine it with a superficial approach.
MH