At the Martha’s Vineyard African American Film Festival’s C-Suite Soirée on August 7, Joy Reid delivered a keynote that cut through the media gloss and addressed a deeply personal truth. She revealed she earned just a tenth of what some colleagues made, despite matching or surpassing them in performance.
Reid spoke candidly about what she called the “curse of competency.” She said, “You know more than everyone else because you’ve had to do more work and more research to get where you are.” This reality, she added, meant “you actually work the hardest, do the most hours, work the most overtime, and don’t get paid commensurate to the amount of work you do.”
Then she shared a striking confession: “I worked in a business where I was paid a tenth of the salary of people who did literally my same job, the whole time I worked there.” She paused to reflect, “Any man that was doing what I was doing was going to make more than me. And that they were going to be able to negotiate higher salaries, even at lower ratings.”
Reid continued: “They get the sort of presumption of brilliance… They work fewer hours and make more. They get bigger raises, more opportunities and more grace. This is the world we live in.”
Behind the Figures
Before her show The ReidOut was cancelled in February 2025 amid a network reorganization, Reid reportedly earned $3 million per year. In late 2024, however, she and other marquee anchors were offered pay cuts, part of broader cost-saving efforts at the network.
Meanwhile, MSNBC, now rebranded as MS NOW, declined to comment on her salary claims. Despite that, Reid’s contributions were recognized in a staff memo by then-network president Rebecca Kutler, which highlighted her accolades, including the 2025 NAACP Image Award.
Her departure drew emotional support from Rachel Maddow, who called it “a bad mistake,” adding, “There is no colleague for whom I have had more affection and more respect than Joy Reid.”
Now, Reid continues her work on her own YouTube platform, The Joy Reid Show, where she continues to cover politics, news, and culture.