Last Friday, the San Francisco Symphony announced a new 3-year contract with their musicians, featuring a retroactive start date of November 24, 2024. In doing so, they averted a potential strike and gave all of their stakeholders some much needed good news mere hours before their season-opening gala was to begin.
The full SFS press release is HERE. Given the relative acrimony between management and musicians, the 15% total increase is an extremely pleasant surprise. Congratulations to the musicians — they certainly deserve to continue being among the best compensated orchestral players in the country, and the injection of some stability should help the orchestra’s search for a new Music Director.
Meanwhile, the Los Angele Philharmonic musicians’ union — the American Federation of Musicians Local 47 — officially confirmed on their website the basics of what I reported last week: specifically, that there was a new 4-year contract that went into effect yesterday, September 15, that “includes substantial increases in base wages, substitute pay, and New Music and Chamber Music pay, as well as improved vacation benefits.” Though the LA Phil declined to comment on my Sept 10th post, quotes from the principal negotiators, including orchestra CEO Kim Noltemy, are included in the AFM Local 47 announcement.
Interestingly, there was no mention of the housing allowance which has been a unique feature of the LA Phil contract with its musicians since 2013. When I first mentioned it in 2017, no other major American had a similar clause. Since then, I haven’t heard of any of them add it. Without the housing allowance, the SFS weekly scale is higher than the LA Phil’s. With the housing allowance, the LA Phil total comp is between 11% and 13.5% higher than the SFS over the life of the SFS contract.
All is Yar obtained actual compensation numbers not (yet) shared publicly by the AFM Local 47 or the orchestra. The table below comparing LA Phil and SFS compensation is based on those details:
| Nov 24, 2024 | Nov 20, 2027 | %∆ (2024 v 2027) | Final contract year | |
| LA Phil Weekly Minimum Base Salary | $3,232 | $3,600 | 11.39% | $3,760 |
| LA Phil Weekly Minimum Base Total Compensation | $3,862 | $4,495 | 16.39% | $4,700 |
| San Francisco Symphony Minimum Base Salary | $3,450 | $3,960 | 14.78% | — |
| ∆% Minimum Total Weekly Compensation (LA Phil vs SFS) | 11.49% | 13.51% | — | — |
A couple of notes:
- I chose the Nov 24, 2024 and Nov 20, 2027 dates as those represent the start and end of the SFS contract, even though they occur in the middle of respective LA Phil contract years
- The final column is what is included in the final year of the LA Phil contract, which runs through September 2029. Since the SFS contract only runs 3 years beginning November 2024, no comparable information for them is included.
While we’re at it, let’s compare the available information for both of the two largest California orchestras to four of the five US orchestras historically referenced as benchmarks (and nope, I’m not gonna perpetuate use of the traditional name for that group):
| Weekly base compensation | November 2024 | November 2025 |
| Boston Symphony | (unavailable) | $3,895 |
| Chicago Symphony | (unavailable) | $3,810 |
| Los Angeles Philharmonic | $3,862 | $4,016 |
| New York Philharmonic | ~$3,410 | $3,667 |
| Philadelphia Orchestra | ~$3,245 | $3,390 |
| San Francisco Symphony | $3,450 | (see below) |
Notes:
- If the 15% total increase over life of the SFS contract is annualized to 5%, that would mean the November 2025 weekly base would be about $3,623; however, the press release did not give the specifics of the actual amount of the intermediate increases.
- The best news in all of the orchestra musicians’ salaries have recovered from COVID-19 challenges.
- The information above is taken from a combination of publicly available and other reliable sources. None of the information about the largest non-opera orchestras in Boston, Chicago, Cleveland, New York, Philadelphia, and San Francisco mention anything comparable to the LA Phil housing allowance.
RELATED POSTS
- BREAKING: LA Phil musicians ratify new 4-year contract featuring significant pay raises and more (Sept 10, 2025)
- LA Phil new contract redux: upon further review, looks like they’re the best paid orchestra after all (Aug 12, 2017)
- LA Phil players ink new 5-year contract (Aug 14, 2017)
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Photo credits: Craig Mole, courtesy of the San Francisco Symphony
All is Yar 