The Moment Mika Brzezinski Almost Left Morning Joe
When you think of morning television today, Mika Brzezinski's name is practically synonymous with it. As a co-host of Morning Joe, she's become one of the most recognizable faces in the business. But there was a time when she almost walked away from it all. In her 2011 book, Knowing Your Value, Mika revealed that a significant pay disparity almost drove her to quit the show she loved.
“It wasn’t because I disliked my job. On the contrary, I adored it. There was something electric about Morning Joe—a spark that no other show I’d worked on had ever matched,” Mika shared. “But after almost two decades climbing and falling, and climbing again, I hit a breaking point. I was demoralized. I felt invisible, despite the 15-hour workdays and the success we’d built together. It was a painful decision, but I realized I had to make a change.”
A Price Tag on Hard Work: The Numbers Didn’t Add Up
It was the winter of 2008, just a year after Mika and Joe Scarborough began co-hosting Morning Joe. Sitting in the studio every morning surrounded by male colleagues who earned significantly more than her, Mika couldn’t ignore the reality any longer. “Their salaries weren’t just slightly higher than mine—they were exponentially higher. It was discouraging, to say the least,” she wrote.
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Shockingly, Mika discovered that Joe was making 14 times more than her. “I couldn’t justify continuing to work for a network that didn’t see my worth. At 40 years old, I realized it was time to either do things right or not at all. It wasn’t just about the money—it was about respect, recognition, and feeling valued for the work I put in day after day,” she explained.
Joe Scarborough: A Partner in the Fight for Fairness
When Mika approached Joe with her decision to leave, she found an unexpected ally. “Joe knew I wasn’t being paid what I deserved, and he’d been advocating for me all along. When I told him I was ready to walk away, he didn’t let me. He asked for a little more time,” Mika revealed.
With Joe’s support, Mika decided to take a different approach. Instead of blaming MSNBC, she took responsibility for understanding her own value. “I realized I had to own my worth. I had to stand up and say, ‘This is what I bring to the table, and this is what I deserve.’ It wasn’t easy, but it was necessary,” she said.
The Outcome: A New Chapter Begins
Eventually, Mika successfully negotiated a higher salary with MSNBC boss Phil Griffin. She stayed on Morning Joe, continuing to build the show she loved. Her journey inspired her to launch the Know Your Value movement, empowering women across the country to recognize their worth.
“We are leaders. We are making money. We are spending money. We are at our wisest. And, honestly, we’ve got the least amount of f—cks to give,” Mika told Politico in 2023. “That makes us incredibly valuable. We’re breaking down misconceptions about women over 50 in the workforce. We’re proving that our wisdom, experience, and determination make us more effective than ever before. And we’re doing it together.”
From Joe’s perspective, the situation was clear. Speaking to HuffPost in May 2011, he remembered the moment vividly. “We woke up one day, and I was making 14 times what Mika was making. That’s when it hit me—this just doesn’t work. We needed to renegotiate. But the network’s attitude was, ‘You signed your contracts. Too bad.’ It was frustrating, but we didn’t give up,” he recalled.
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