You can always find great musicians on the streets of Chicago, but not usually members of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra. But now those performers are walking a picket line, striking mostly for something American workers of the last century commonly had: a dependable pension.
This “defined contribution” plan is what most private-sector employees have now, if they’re lucky enough to have any employer- funded retirement benefits. If you have a 401(k) at work, it’s what you’ve got.
There are other issues at stake, including salary increases in what, until recent years, was the best-compensated orchestra in the nation. Base salary last season was $159,000. And management has produced a graph that purports to show that, when adjusted for the local cost of living, CSO musicians are still better compensated than their peers, with the possible exception of those in Cleveland.
