Newsache, an excellent blog about The Cincinnati Enquirer, says Publisher Margaret Buchanan just posted a new mileage reimbursement rate for non-union staffers: 33 cents. "It's immoral," the anonymous author writes today. "It means Gannett is subsidizing its business on the backs of employees. AAA says it costs 50.5 cents per mile to run a small sedan for 10,000 miles a year, or 37.4 cents at 20,000 miles per year. This is calculated for a new car in 2006, when gas was about 40 cents a gallon cheaper than it is today. The AAA's average for all kinds of cars is 62.1 cents per mile at 10,000 miles per year, almost twice what the Enquirer is paying."Know a blog about a Gannett property? Use this link to e-mail the name and URL; see Tipsters Anonymous Policy in the sidebar, upper right. Or leave a note in the comments section, below.
Driving in San Francisco is impossible, because there's hardly any parking. I may drive two or three times -- a year. I take public transportation and cabs instead.
ReplyDeleteWisconsin's reimbursement rate is $0.30 and our gas is about $3.20 a gallon now. Cincy's gas (from a quick look on the Internet) is just over $3.00.
ReplyDeleteSo count your blessings...
Are you f&*%in' kidding me? We get like .26 a mile in East Brunswick. Get this, the former VP for HR, Mike Lorenca, raised it 1 cent after prices started going up, what three years ago? All that and 1% raises. What a great place to work...
ReplyDeleteHere in Louisville, we reporters also get 33 cents, but to play devil's advocate I think AAA's costs are a bit high, and they probably include all scheduled maintenance, not a pro-rated share with some going toward business driving and the rest toward personal use.
ReplyDelete.27 at my Gannett paper.
ReplyDeleteFeh. Wilmington just raised its rate ... to a princely 29 cents. Used to be 26 cents.
ReplyDeleteGreenville News (South Carolina)- $.25/mi. (Jim, Keep up the GOOD work on your blog.)
ReplyDeletePhoenix reimbursement rate is .28 per mile. Phoenix is a big town and some staffers drive 150 miles a day in town on in town assignments. The last time they raised mileage (by a penny WHOO HOO!!), we were told the raise would be rescinded if prices came back down to a certain point.
ReplyDelete.25 a mile at the Asbury Park Press.
ReplyDeleteAccording to the IRS, here are the standard mileage rates:
ReplyDelete-- 48.5 cents per mile for business miles driven
-- 20 cents per mile driven for medical or moving purposes
-- 14 cents per mile driven in service to a charitable organization.
Here's the link to the full release:
http://www.irs.gov/newsroom/article/0,,id=163828,00.html
If you do keep a log of your miles driven for work you can deduct the difference between the IRS rate (above) and what the Gannett site is paying you on your income tax. Again, provided you have good records to support your claim.
The infamous Courier-Post is 25 cents. Excuse the expression, but what a load of 'poop' that is. Yes, this paper has been making those who use their own cars for business subsidize the paper. The beat goes on.
ReplyDelete$.25/mile. As a photographer I rack up a lot of miles each month, and at this point I lose money every time I start my car for the job.
ReplyDeleteI used to get the Gannett pittance and tore up two cars in my career. My travel rate was in the upper 20s and I drove about 5000-6000 miles a year. Now that I have exited Cheapville, I am paid 46 cents and I get a great Anthem policy w/Dental for $40 a month OOP. As the crap slowly trickles out, isn't it amazing at all the little ways Gannett boosted its stock price on the backs of its employees. Give us you fully insured and maintained car for 27 cents a mile and don't dare complain. And yes, that vending machine food tastes better than the cafeteria.
ReplyDeleteThe rate in big places like Phoenix is atrocious, especially for photographers and the roving state reporter. It is like all of them got pay cuts. Totally unfair and unrealistic.
ReplyDeleteLet them eat cake. Leave this shitty corporation. There is no justice between the disparity of the top execs. and the rank and file.
ReplyDeleteHow's that for a comment from a former Gannett Gold Ring winner. Which I regret selling now...given the current price of gold.
Mileage at GCI Corp?
ReplyDelete$.21
I bet those that decide such things have company cars...Hmmmmm
God help the newspaper carriers who don't even get mileage.
ReplyDeleteI was just going to post the same thing as anonymous at 3:39 regarding newspaper carrier. I delivered newspapers for over 13 years and for the past 10 we never received any type of increase in per paper profit and when the gas prices started rising it was time to get out. I'm wondering if they're trying to figure out how to get India to deliver those also....
ReplyDeleteBut for the record, the company does not have to pay a dime for mileage right? That is not a justification but reality. While I no longer work for Gannett the place I do work pays 40 cents a mile. Their advice? Keep track of miles and take the difference between what they pay and the federal allowance off my tax return along with the other things not paid for.
ReplyDeleteGannett pays .23/mile in Montgomery.
ReplyDeleteYour Nation's Nicepaper pays 33 cents as well ... when I rejoined the staff in the 1990s (I'm one of those who has since taken USAT's buyout, this past December), the rate was laughable, somewhere near 20-21 cents, which was even less than at the non-Gannett paper where I had been working. I remember trying, fruitlessly, to get the beancounters to see the injustice. The answer I got back to my "why/how come?" was, in essence, "None of your business."
ReplyDeleteThis was at the same time that the company was trying to adjust employee health/etc. benefits to be identical across the company. My appeal on that ground -- hey, let's make the mileage reimbursement equal as well! -- was met with the same stony silence.
BTW, another, different Gannett "property" in the same city where I was working at the time was giving more than 30 cents a mile back then, at or near the IRS rate.
I was a newsgatherer, and so wasn't in the car constantly like, say, those poor distribution / circulation types who no doubt really had to bite it -- and still do, more than ever.
At The Daily Advertiser in Lafayette, La., we're currently paid 25 cents per mile, with gas at $3.26 avg as of mid April.
ReplyDeleteAs others have said on this board, the company is forcing the Fed Gov't to subsidize its employee mileage compensation, and also indirectly making employees take a pay cut every time the gas price rises.
Leave the company, don't give a two weeks notice, and go save journalism with a company that has its head on straight.
Anyone who says, "the Fed Gov't to subsidize its employee mileage compensation" is full of crap.
ReplyDeleteWhen are you fellow journalists going to wake up?
If you have to pay an extra $2,000 out of your pocket for the privilege of working is only getting back maybe $200 to $400 in taxes. YOU dished out $1,600 to $1,800 of your hard earned money (those who really hustle and work).
Those who say, "take it off on your taxes," is falling right into the corporate scheme of things. Since WHEN did someone ever say that to you, have training or is certified to give out financial advice?
Cash is KING! The more money you have in your pocket and not GIVING to the company puts you in a better position given the state of the newspaper industry.