I knew exactly what to expect this morning when I opened an e-mail bearing that miserable subject line. A Gannett Blog reader says South Carolina's Greenville News has finally raised the mileage reimbursement rate from what had been 25 cents(!!!) a mile. "We've moved valiantly and courageously to 27 cents per mile,'' he says. "Compared to your previous post regarding Cincy's rate, ours is more abysmal, which means we win. Or do we lose?"But wait, there's more! "When it got moved from 23 cents to 25 about two years ago, senior management made sure we knew it was a huge sacrifice. . . . This time, especially since our clamoring for relief has been much louder (and perhaps more homicidal), there was no 'we're taking a bullet for you' message. Also considering we're pumping in $3.50 gas now with $4 gas on the horizon, it's just downright pitiful that we're subsidizing our own jobs."
What's your mileage reimbursement rate? When's the last time it went up -- and by how much? Leave a note, in the comments section, below. Or use this link to e-mail your reply; see Tipsters Anonymous Policy in the green sidebar, upper right.
Woah.. 25 cents a gallon? Or 25 cents a MILE?
ReplyDeleteGood catch, @1:20 p.m. I've changed gallons to miles.
ReplyDeleteI'd be interested in hearing how the skyrocketing gas prices are affecting circulation and distribution. Carriers don't get a mileage reimbursement. How are newspapers hanging onto them? Anyone?
ReplyDeleteJim:
ReplyDeleteWhere the company can really be stuck is with motor route drivers, a class of people deemed to be independent contractors, not employees. Unless the company raises its payments to match rapidly increasing gas prices, they quit. (Would you want to be working a three-hour shift starting at 4 am seven days a week while subsidizing a company that pays its execs millions?)
This means already overworked district service managers have to do more work and circulation can really start tanking.
I'm a newsroom guy and I think those DSMs really have it bad.
At times, the cost of delivering the paper at the fringes will be so high that the company will decide it is better business to kiss the potential customer goodbye.
A business that makes nothing but money is a poor business. ~Henry Ford
ReplyDeleteHERE IS A TIP: Keep track of the mileage and DEDUCT it from your taxes.
ReplyDeleteAlong those lines, Anon @3:52pm, are there any readers who are CPAs, tax attorneys or the like? I've heard that there are a few options as far as handling business mileage and I'm unsure as to which if any are true:
ReplyDelete1) Deduct the difference between what you were paid by your business and the federal rate (currently $0.505/mile)
2) Claim what you were paid by your business as taxable income and then deduct the full federal rate.
3) Don't get reimbursed by your business and claim the full federal rate.
Of course, taking the federal mileage rate would only benefit you if the total exceeds that year's standard deduction assuming you don't itemize.
Can anybody with credentials weigh in on this?
Wouldn't it be lovely if all us Gannett employees could be paid a fair price per mile? Somebody help us out! When you drive more than 10,000 miles a year for business use of your vehicle, 10-20 cents makes a hell of a difference!
$0.25/mile? You folks are lucky. At corporate, it's $0.21/mile. It hasn't changed since 1995, when it was $0.21/mile for the first 100 miles, then $0.18/mile after that.
ReplyDeleteAs far as deducting it from taxes, that only works when unreimbursed expenses are more than something like 2.5% (or thereabouts) of your AGI. And then you can only deduct the amount ABOVE that.
So for folks who drive all the time, then there is some relief there, but for the rest of us, we're screwed.
It's 25 cents a mile at the C-P in Cherry Hill, too.
ReplyDeleteIn Rochester, NY, the rate is 28 cents/mile. Gas costs $3.80 a gallon here.
ReplyDeleteThat is truly sad - my new company, which I left Gannett for earlier this year - pays triple that a mile and I was shocked - and pleased by this. It amazes me how stingy newspapers can be when it comes to their employees - especially when you consider how huge their profit margins have been over the years. I once worked at this paper and while is cheaper in S.C., it's still much higher than it normally would be considering the current gas prices. Shame Gannett. Give the reporters a break and pay them a decent wage for gas mileage, damn!
ReplyDeleteWowser. We are high on the hog in Burlington - 30 cents a mile!
ReplyDeleteIn Asheville, the rate is 26 cents per mile, and some employees are getting restless. There's a push on to have the issue addressed at an upcoming meeting of regional big shots in Louisville.
ReplyDeleteWow! We are real generous here in Lansing. 43 cents a mile here!
ReplyDeleteIn corporate it is 55 cents a mile. Sorry suckers and I am guaranteed my job!
ReplyDeleteI've got y'll beat. The Hattiesburg paper paid 22.5 cents/mile when I worked there a few months ago.
ReplyDelete23 cents here in Montgomery
ReplyDeleteThe Asbury Park Press is 25 cents.
ReplyDeleteIndianapolis is .33/mile. Guess I can't complain too much anymore.
ReplyDelete