Audacy News 1060 KYW/103.9 WPHI Philadelphia morning co-anchor Carol MacKenzie is suing the company for gender and age discrimination seeking unspecified back pay, damages, interest, attorney fees, and injunctive and declaratory relief claiming the company violated the Equal Pay Act and the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act.
MacKenzie has been with KYW since 2003. During her tenure at the station, she alleges that she has been paid less than male and younger co-workers. Her suit says that when she started she was paid $20,000 to $30,000 less than “similarly situated” male colleagues. When asking for a raise in 2010, her then boss told her should could not have a higher salary than anchor Ed Abrams. Then in 2011, two reporters who were approximately 15 years younger than her were making $10,000 more per-year than her. She continues that in 2014 another anchor, Brandon Brooks, was promoted to the same position she held, but was paid $30,000 more than her. When she found out in 2018, the station responded by lowering Brooks’ salary and “modestly” increasing hers.
In 2020, after KYW’s highest-paid anchors and reporters were asked to take a voluntary pay cut due to the COVID-19 pandemic, she agreed to a $20,000 reduction, but later that year the station hired Denise Nakano as midday anchor at $20,000 more than MacKenzie. In 2021, SAG-AFTRA conducted an investigation on MacKenzie’s request that found that KYW had engaged in “systemic gender-based pay violations” during the course of her tenure. While the investigation was ongoing, she was offered a three year contract renewal with salaries of $137,000 for 2022, $140,000 for 2023, and $143,000 for 2024. She turned down the offer believing those salaries “were far less than her male counterparts,” which led to Audacy increasing their offer by $10-13,000 per year, which she accepted.
The suit also requests the court to direct KYW to cease any and all unlawful age discrimination and to appoint an external monitor to report on KYW’s pay rates for anchors and reporters for a period of at least three years.
MacKenzie currently anchors the 5am hour solo and co-anchors from 6-9am with Ian Bush. Prior to joining the station in 2003, she served as a television news anchor at WBRE-TV Scranton, WHP-TV Harrisburg, and New England Cable News.
