The American Alliance of Museums, Washington, D.C., has long urged organizations posting job openings on JobsHQ, its jobs board, to include salary range information. Beginning Nov. 15, this recommendation will become a requirement.
“Many other job boards and municipalities have moved toward making salary ranges a requirement on job postings, and many of you have told us these requirements, coupled with AAM’s resources on how to implement this have helped you to make the changes in your institutions,” organization leaders wrote in a posting announcing the requirement. “Critically, job seekers have reported that knowing the salary ranges for positions upfront have eased the burden of finding a new job and negotiating a fair salary.”
Why the seeming delay in implementation? “We know that salary transparency practices can’t thoughtfully take place overnight or in isolation. It requires a critical look at current practices and, for many, the collaboration and approval of parent organizations, boards, and other entities,” organization leaders wrote. “With this advanced notice, we urge museums to begin making the policy reviews and changes, benchmarking, and compensation studies required to holistically implement these important practices.”
“Pay transparency promotes equity in the workplace,” Metropolitan Museum of Art Vice President, External Affairs and Chief Communications Officer Ken Weine told The NonProfit Times. “We have embraced both the AAM requirements and look forward to doing the same for the upcoming city requirements.”
As Weine noted, in some states and localities laws are mandating the AAM requirement. In New York City, where the Met is based, the city council passed a bill requiring any employer with four or more employees to post salary information on its job listings. The bill, which was initially slated to be in effect as of May 15 of this year, had its implementation date pushed back to Nov. 1 of this year. At that time, New York City will join the entire states of California, Colorado, Connecticut, Maryland, Nevada, Rhode Island and Washington as well as the municipalities of Cincinnati, Jersey City, N.J., Ithaca, N.Y., Westchester County, N.Y., Cincinnati and Toledo, Ohio.
The move to mandate salary listings by the AAM marks a change in its position. In an October 2018 blog post titled Leading By Example, Not by Mandate President and CEO Laura Lott wrote “[I] it is not our practice to institute strict, national, one-size-fits-all requirements. The beauty and strength of our Alliance is the range of people and museums we represent. Even the core standards for museums are not prescriptive—they are broad, adaptable, outcome-oriented statements fulfilled by each museum in different ways based on its discipline, type, budget, governance structure, and other unique circumstances.
“After thorough consideration, we continue to believe that AAM should not mandate the specific actions a museum takes to demonstrate its commitment to providing equitable opportunities for all. So at this time, we do not plan to implement a requirement to list pay, which is often governed by myriad federal, state, and local labor laws; umbrella-institution policies; labor union contracts; and more.”
