If You Don't Close the Museum Salary Gap, You Perpetuate It

National Women’s Law Center (NWLC) working mothers make about 71¢ to a working father’s dollar, resulting in a loss of about $16,000 in earnings every year. (That's white mothers though, the parenting pay gap is greater for women of color.) This parent gap exists in every state, and sadly, it doesn't disappear when the kids leave, it stays with women until retirement, just like the gender pay gap we will hear about March 31, 2020, when white women's pay reaches parity with white men's. Women of color won't reach parity until August 13th, Native women, October 1st, and Latina women November 2nd. How's that for shocking and infuriating? So kudos to all of you who have the salary question on your board's agenda for 2020, but remember, no matter how generous your raises, if you don't close the gap, you perpetuate it. So, instead.... If you're a museum service organization or funder: Ask members sharing salary data to report on their pay gap, and be willing and ready to share pay data, including the gap, with prospective employees moving to your area. If you're a museum or heritage organization leader: If you currently ban employees from talking about wages, consider lifting it so staff can know what they don't know. Think about a wage audit, disclosing the results to staff, and working to rectify them over a period of time. Work to eliminate bias in hiring and in promotion. Men, for example, are often rewarded monetarily when they become parents; men are also promoted on who they might become rather than on current performance. If you're a woman employee: Know what the field, particularly the museum and heritage field in your region, pays. Do your homework. Know what amount seems like pay Nirvana, and what amount is worth saying "Thank you, no." Educate yourself on how much it will cost to live where you're interviewing. (There are a number of Living Wage Calculators to help with this.) Always negotiate, and don't let being over 50, when women's wages really tank, or being under 30 when the wage gap is smallest, stop you. Need tips? Try AAUW's Career & Workplace and Salary Negotiation workshop page or Gender Equity in Museums 5 Things You Need to Know. Pay fairness is a moral issue. In the 1980s and 90s when women entered the job market in large numbers, it was possible to say, "She doesn't have the experience, she's not as educated, she's not supporting a family," or any number of out-dated and outmoded ideas. But that's over. Fifty years ago, 58-percent of college students were men; today 56-percent are women. One in four women are raising children on their own; and 12-percent of working adults are also caring for another adult. Your staff is the lifeblood of your organization. And a staff that's equitably paid is a happy staff, and happy staffs deliver. They're creative, empathetic, fun to work with, and great community ambassadors. Invest in them, and do it fairly. Joan Baldwin P.S. This was also the week that London's Tate advertised for a head barista at a salary higher than the average curator. Cold comfort to know that we're paid badly on both sides of the pond. Image: Artnet News, February 5, 2020