The Graphic Artists Guild is appalled to learn that textbook publisher McGraw-Hill has instituted a policy of charging their freelancers a 2.2% fee on every invoice they submit to the publisher. We have communicated to McGraw Hill CEO Simon Allen and General Counsel David Stafford our dismay at this decision. We’ve asked them to rescind this policy and reimburse the freelancers who have paid this fee.

McGraw-Hill claims that this “Small Supplier Fee” is required to “support labor market compliance, administrative tasks, and the Vendor Management System (VMS) associated with payment processes.” Since the only way freelancers can invoice McGraw-Hill is through the Fieldglass system, the 2.2% fee is essentially a blanket cut from every freelancer invoice submitted to the company. Guild members who submit invoices for other clients through the Fieldglass VMS are not charged a fee. So why would a major textbook publisher need to do so? Is this simply a way for McGraw-Hill to meet its financial goals at the expense of the creative professionals it relies on?

We are particularly dismayed that McGraw-Hill has chosen to take this step in a year in which, because of the pandemic, the creative workforce has seen a dramatic drop in income. As freelancers and independent contractors, these workers can often not avail themselves of full pandemic unemployment relief.

Please help us to tell McGraw-Hill to rescind this regressive policy. Fill out the Authors Guild’s petition below or on their website, open to all creative professionals, demanding that McGraw-Hill cease this policy.

You can also join our social media campaign by tweeting and posting to McGraw-Hill, @MHEducation, using the hashtag #NoMcGrawHillFee.

View our letter to McGraw-Hill here.