Jerry et al,

I have not been following this full thread so do not know if this has been mentioned.  Guidestar.org is a website with information about nonprofits.  They have on their site, and can be accessed for free, the IRS 990 forms for nonprofits that are required to be filed every year.  In the past these were required to list compensation of all staff over $50,000 if I remember correctly, which made them very useful, but that was changed a few years ago to $100,000 I believe.  So this may not be helpful for any job that approaches minimum wage, but certainly is for the higher paid positions.  I have visited there dozens of times in advising friends of the potential salary expectations at a number of museums.  Of course, none of this says what is being offered for a specific open job, but it at least gives an idea of what happened in the past.  If no one is listed on the 990, that means the CEO/Executive Director and everyone else is being paid less than $100,000 so you have knowledge that their pay scale is rather low.  If one or several staff are listed, it is an indication that their pay scale is reasonable.  I am shocked that an organization would not tell a prospect what the salary range was if they called.  I have called numerous times, again on behalf of friends, and was told every time.  No one wants to waste their time or the time of the organization if it is too low.

Marc

American Conservation Consortium, Llc
     [log in to unmask] 

Marc A. Williams, President
     MS in Art Conservation, Winterthur Museum Program
     Former Chief Wooden Objects Conservator, Smithsonian Institution

From: Jerry L Foust 
Sent: Friday, July 16, 2021 9:31 AM
To: [log in to unmask] 
Subject: Re: [MUSEUM-L] Positions available at KID Museum


Ms. Eyl,

I’m sorry that you interpreted my tone as hostile.  When I asked you (a representative of your organization) to please not waste everyone’s time by not listing compensation levels I was asking the organization to be transparent.  I had assumed actually that the postings without compensation levels was perhaps just an oversight by the KID Museum without ill intent.  However, now that I know that the KID Museum has a specific policy to not list compensation I feel that the job posts are even more problematic.  I am happy to read that you too agree that transparency of salary information is necessary.  However, I find it sad that somehow my tone is deemed hostile yet the policy of a museum to not be transparent should be seen as acceptable or just simply ignored.  That the KID Museum has a policy indicates to me that leadership has had conversations about this and have actively and specifically decided that the museum will not be transparent about pay scales.  That seems to be far more hostile than the tone I expressed in my post.  It is wasting the time of both the applicant AND the museum staff to post a job, have applicants draft resumes, collect resumes, setup interviews, interview, and then offer a job to a person only for them to find out it doesn’t pay a living wage.  

Just so you know, I passed along your job announcement to people who I thought might be interested only to be told by them that they didn’t see the point in applying if they had no idea what the pay was.  

I wish you the best of luck in filling the positions.  I suspect that you will get plenty of applicants and that you will no doubt hire people to fill the positions.  I hope that your organization will rethink its policy to not list compensation levels with the goal of not only being more transparent but doing the right thing for you, your future employees, and for the museum field as a whole.

Thank you for starting the dialog with the job postings.  It is a clear indication that our field has a long way to go.  I fear we have emerged from the pandemic, during which time many museum employees lost their jobs, to be faced with institutions bent on remaining as clouded and unresponsive to the needs of employees as ever.  The fact that the KID Museum’s pay structure is as you state, “competitive in the market” still doesn’t mean the museum pays a living wage.  Good people are leaving the museum field in droves (some forced to and other electing to leave) because the field can’t sustain a work force that needs a living wage.  That is a big problem.  A problem that we are all responsible for and need to address.

All the best,
Jerry

Jerry Foust

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