Arts + All Museums Salary Transparency 2019 - a spreadsheet reveals all

A spreadsheet Arts + All Museums Salary Transparency 2019 was put online and started circulating amongst staff in art museums and galleries last Friday morning (31 May 2019). 

It seeks to record the salaries of different workers in art galleries and museums around the world.

It has taken off and is now approaching warp speed! On June 3 Hyperallergic said it had 660 entries. I looked this morning and checked how many had completed it and it now has over 1800 entries meaning it has tripled in size in less than 3 days - suggesting future growth, as it goes intercontinental, will be exponential.

The data it provides includes

• name of gallery or museum
• role
• Department
• City
• Country
• Starting Salary
• Year of Starting Salary
• Current (2019) or Ending Salary
• Hourly / permanent / or contingent employment
• In part time how many hours per week
• Benefits?
• Year this salary was current
• Years of experience at time of current salary listed
• parental leave 

and these are some of the people who are recording their salaries

National Gallery of Art, Washington DC

Tate in the UK

Most of the data to date currently comes from the USA - but is expanding to include people in other countries - and will continue to do so long as it is shared within personal networks.

Also note that some museums are named by type and broad location whereas others are completely transparent and name their employer.

It's now locked in terms of inputting data BUT can be updated

We've locked the Excel sheet below so that the data remains intact. New entries are still very welcome, using the Google Form link above. These are always anonymous. They will be uploaded to the sheet below once every 24 hrs.
If you have any Qs or concerns, email checkthenameinthespreadsheet@gmail.com

Being locked means that the frozen pane does not seem to work - meaning that the row containing the column headings disappears off screen which is somewhat irritating - but I'm sure they'll fix that when they work out how to lock cells rather than the whole sheet.

Who started it

Here's some of the news coverage so far and some of the reasons why it came about

Michelle Millar Fisher—an assistant curator of European decorative arts and design at PMA and previously a staffer at MoMA, the Met, and the Guggenheim—created the document and posted it to her Instagram page, where she wrote: “A few years ago, thinking about transparency and the multi-vectored gaps in pay, I started sharing my salaries for each job I’ve had, from nannying to curating, every time I give a career talk. . . . Please contribute if you can.” Fisher told Artnews that she was inspired to make the spreadsheet after writer-curator Kimberly Drew disclosed previous salaries she earned at the Met, the Studio Museum in Harlem, and other institutions. Art Workers Circulate Public Spreadsheet to Promote SalaryTransparency, Reveal pay gaps | Art Forum

✊🏾 'It's Helpful to Know All Scales': Online Spreadsheet Discloses Museum Workers' Salaries https://t.co/cnrOfouTvm

— kimberly rose drew (@museummammy) 31 May 2019

Fisher said she and her colleagues had been inspired to discuss their salaries after hearing Kimberly Drew describe how much she was paid when she held positions at the Met, the Studio Museum in Harlem, and other institutions, and that their survey comes in advance of a similar one to be conducted by POWarts later this year. “I disclosed [my salary] to my colleagues who are of different salary levels, in different institutions,” Fisher said. “In disclosing it, they said it was a really useful thing to share.” ‘It’s Helpful to Know All Scales’: Online Spreadsheet Discloses Museum Workers’ Salaries - References to Museum Salary Surveys and further information and guides | Art News

Today, I shared two slides about how being undercompensated at The Met was a motivator. What I didn’t mention was the fact that I knew I was being underpaid bc @taylorcnewby was transparent about his own salary. Taylor, thank you for being an ally. pic.twitter.com/Cg9NrqQfJ3

— kimberly rose drew (@museummammy) 21 May 2019

I think the response it is getting is very likely to be instigated by those who have also looked at some of the salaries quoted for some of the top people in the organisation (see TAB 2: Top Staff Salaries) and then become outraged at the massive differentials between the top and lower down the organisation

The pay for these prestigious positions may be lower than you expect | Museum Workers Share Their Salaries and Urge Industry-Wide Reform | Hyperallergic

PS Somebody from Hyperallergic participated and indicated it's $100 per article!

Fisher added, in an email to artnet News, that the contributors are from beyond art museums, and are weighing in from science and other museums, as well as from commercial galleries. That was the intention all along, she says, adding “it is completely open to all who identify with this field,” including some international participants who have already contributed. How Much Do Museum Employees Actually Make? A Tell-All Google Spreadsheet Is Now Making the Rounds - Can a new salary spreadsheet be used as a bargaining chip? artnet news

References to further Museum Salary Surveys and other relevant information

Interestingly one of the tabs provides links to other resources related to Salaries in Museums and I'm copying them below

• Inspiration for this doc: Adjunct Project https://www.chronicle.com/article/Adjunct-Project-Shows-Wide/136439
• Inspiration for this doc: Forthcoming POWarts salary survey https://www.artsy.net/article/artsy-editorial-powarts-survey-aims-bring-transparency-art-salaries 
• Inspiration for this doc: Kimberly Drew keynote at AAM 2019 https://www.aam-us.org/2019/05/28/aam2019-keynote-kimberly-drew/
• AAMD (Assoc. Art Museum Directors) 2019 Wage Survey https://aamd.org/sites/default/files/document/AAMD%20Salary%20Survey%202018%20final.pdf
• AAM (American Alliance of Museums) National Comparative Museum Salary Study 2012 available for free here 
• AAM (AMerican Alliance of Museums) National Comparative Museum Salary Study 2017
• NYT "Should You Tell the World How Much Money You Make?" (Ans: yes) https://www.nytimes.com/2019/05/10/business/salary-transparency-ask-a-manager.html
• NEMA (New England Museum Association) 2017 Salary Survey https://nemanet.org/resources/publications/salary-study/
• MoMA Salary Minimums for all UAW Local 2110 union job titles http://www.2110uaw.org/cbas/MoMA_Salary_Minimums_2018-2023.pdf
• Museum Collectieve arbeidsovereenkomst (CAO) [Museum Collective Agreenment] https://www.museumvereniging.nl/media/publicationpage/publicationFile/cao-2018-2020-pdf-definitief.pdf Standards for museum staff in the Netherlands
• NYT "Why You Should Tell Your Co-Workers How Much Money You Make" It’s unlawful for private sector employers to prohibit employees from discussing wages and compensation. Take advantage of that protection. https://www.nytimes.com/2018/08/31/smarter-living/pay-secrecy-national-labor-rights-act.html "Open discussion of salaries among peers and co-workers, experts said, is a powerful tool to fight pay inequity. Not only does it serve both selfish and altruistic means — it simultaneously puts you and your co-workers in a better position during salary negotiations — but pay transparency can even protect companies by “minimizing the risk of disparate treatment claims and increasing job satisfaction for workers.”"
• Search for your museum's 990 to see salary listings (find under the "Schedule J" tab) https://projects.propublica.org/nonprofits Podcast: Museopunks, Episode 35: Salary Transparency in Art Museums https://www.aam-us.org/2019/05/22/museopunks-episode-35/ "On September 11, 2018, the Board of Directors of the Mountain-Plains Museums Association unanimously voted to require that any jobs or paid internships posted to the MPMA Job Bank would include the level of compensation– whether salary or hourly rate. ...In this episode, we’re joined by Will Stoutamire and Lauren Hunley (both on the Board of the MPMA), and Michelle Epps, President of the National Emerging Museum Professionals Network, for a discussion about salary transparency in the museum field."
• GEMM (Gender Equity in Museums) Salary Transparency Statement https://www.genderequitymuseums.com/single-post/SalaryMatters
• State-by-state US guide to pregnant and parenting workers' rights (A Better Balance) https://babygate.abetterbalance.org
• The New York Working Woman's Pocket Guide (A Better Balance) https://www.abetterbalance.org/new-york-working-womans-pocket-guide/
• Fair Museum Jobs https://fairmuseumjobs.wordpress.com/2018/08/04/the-journey-begins/
• S2M Salary Surveys (biannual reports covering not-for-profits in Australia) https://www.tna.org.au/what-we-do/research/