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Most Jakarta journalists remain underpaid, survey finds
The Alliance of Independent Journalists (AJI) recommended on Tuesday that the proper take-home pay for journalists in Jakarta was Rp 8.2 million (US$555) per month.
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The Corruption Eradication Commission's (KPK) former director of networking and interinstitutional cooperation Sujanarko (left) stands with former senior graft investigator Novel Baswedan (third right) while talking to journalists in Jakarta on May 17, 2021. (Antara/M. Risyal Hidayat)
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he Alliance of Independent Journalists (AJI) has recommended that journalists working in Jakarta receive at least Rp 8.2 million (US$555) per month in take-home pay, but the association found most journalists in its survey are paid far below this.
The Rp 8.2 million figure was based on basic needs of food, housing and clothing as well as the allocation of savings and devices needed for work, such as laptops or smartphones. The figure is higher than the Rp 8 million recommended in the association’s survey last year.
From the 97 journalists surveyed, 44.3 percent admitted that they were paid under Jakarta’s 2023 provincial minimum wage of Rp 4.9 million a month, some receiving a mere Rp 2 million per month, an amount that was even below AJI’s calculation to just cover food.
The respondents of the survey were Jakarta-based journalists that had been working for zero to three years with most working for online news platforms.
“This is an important future note for AJI and the Manpower Ministry, that is; how we can formulate a media industry that humanizes its journalists more,” said AJI Jakarta head of advocation and labor force division Irsyan Hasyim in a Tuesday press briefing.
Read also: Most journalists in Jakarta are underpaid: Association
Employers must pay every worker at least the annually set minimum wage, and paying a journalist only that much is a violation punishable by a fine or one to four years imprisonment, as regulated in the country’s omnibus law on Job Creation.
