OUR MORAL BETTERS? NOT SO MUCH: The Newspaper Guild’s Washington Post Unit just published a study of pay disparities at the paper. Some highlights of their findings?

• Women as a group are paid less than men.
• Collectively, employees of color are paid less than white men, even when controlling for age and job description. White women are paid about the median for their age.
• Women of color in the newsroom receive $30,000 less than white men — a gap of 35 percent when comparing median salaries.
• The pay disparity between men and women is most pronounced among journalists under the age of 40.
• Men receive a higher percentage of merit pay raises than women, despite accounting for a smaller proportion of the newsroom.
• The Post tends to give merit raises based on performance evaluation scores, but those who score the highest are overwhelmingly white. The Post is fairly consistent across races/ethnicities and genders at awarding raises to those who do well on performance evaluations. But in 85 percent of instances in which a 4 or higher was awarded to a salaried newsroom employee, that employee was white.

According to the preeminent press ethics think-tank The Poynter Foundation, (second item on page) “the Post claims the study is “seriously flawed” and “does not accurately take into account factors such as position, experience and job performance.”

Do as we say, not as we do.