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  • 1.  Update from Laura Lott: Leading by Example, Not by Mandate

    Posted 10-04-2018 05:23 PM
    Since Museum Junction has been the forum for many recent conversations on the topic of equitable pay and hiring practices, I want to share a new blog post by Alliance President and CEO Laura Lott titled, "Leading By Example, Not by Mandate."  It shares not only Laura's views, but also links to many helpful resources for museums tackling these challenges.   Thanks to all of you who have shared your passion and commitment to equity for museum workers and to excellence for our profession.

    Leading By Example, Not by Mandate
    American Alliance of Museums remove preview
    Leading By Example, Not by Mandate
    Champion museums and nurture excellence in partnership with our members and allies. This is the Alliance's mission statement and a call to action that is driving results across the museum field. There is no Alliance without our members!
    View this on American Alliance of Museums >




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    Joseph Klem
    Director, Marketing & Communications
    American Alliance of Museums
    Arlington VA
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  • 2.  RE: Update from Laura Lott: Leading by Example, Not by Mandate

    Posted 10-05-2018 07:55 AM

    It's curious that most other national museum organizations (AASLH, ACM, SMA, etc.) see no problem in requiring salary ranges on their job postings.

    AAM, by providing a platform for "salary masking" instead of setting a simple salary range requirement, gives official cover to those organizations continuing to exploit museum workers through inadequate compensation. 

    AAM's outlier stance seems more focused on protecting profits generated by JobHQ posting fees rather than championing fair and equitable employment opportunities for its members.



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    Paul Orselli
    President and Chief Instigator
    POW!
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    Original Message


  • 3.  RE: Update from Laura Lott: Leading by Example, Not by Mandate

    Posted 10-08-2018 01:59 PM
    Thanks, Paul, for being a consistent champion of this issue.    The Museum Association of Arizona has joined many other organizations - including the Museum Trustee Association and, most recently, the Mountain-Plains Museums Association  - in supporting the requirement of including salary ranges in job postings and will no longer list positions on our website without them.    Part of our research including asking HR managers why they would NOT post salary ranges and this response was typical:

    I am a big fan of posting salaries on postings, since it obviously helps to target applicants more efficiently.  I have also found it helpful in keeping hiring managers from going rogue and breaking budgetary restrictions.  For a brief time last year I implemented posting salaries for these very reasons, but there was such a backlash from current employees who were now privy to salary information that our morale took a huge hit, and the Director ordered me to stop posting.

    In response to Laura's argument that AAM does not institute strict requirements for its members, I would suggest that this issue is an ethical one and in this area AAM does, indeed, mandate policies.    Leading by example means taking the appropriate action on what the Alliance does regarding posting salary ranges.   It still allows individual member organizations to chose what they do.



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    Janice Klein
    Executive Director
    Museum Association of Arizona
    Tempe AZ
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    Original Message


  • 4.  RE: Update from Laura Lott: Leading by Example, Not by Mandate

    Posted 10-08-2018 05:53 PM

    If a museum is afraid that the effect of disclosure of staff salaries is a "big hit" to morale of the museum, perhaps that suggests that they're already aware of gross inequities within their organization. 

    The diversity of educations, experience, qualifications, etc. within a museum are such that I think most staff would expect that not everyone in the building earns the same salary/wage.  When part of a museum staff, I fully expect that there will be people "above my pay grade" and I'm okay with that.  Where things get sticky is when the compensation of some staff members who are integral to the operation of the museum is unsustainably low while that of others is adequate.  It's not that A makes so much, it's that B,C, and D make too little. 

    Supervisors or administrators might understandably feel uncomfortable disclosing the salary of one employee to another, but opacity can breed mistrust.  In one museum that I worked for, I was discussing an adjustment to my salary with my supervisor.  I was reluctantly offered an increase, but when I asked if the offer was influenced largely by internal equity, the response wasn't so reassuring.  So, I took the risk of visiting our finance/accounting office to investigate.  Not wanting to put that person in an uncomfortable position, I did not ask specifically what other staff members in my department were paid.  I just said, "I have an offer of $X per year.  Is this comparable to what these others doing similar work are paid?"  The answer I got contained no specifics, but it was strongly suggested that I go back to the negotiating table.  I continued working there for some time afterward, but my trust never recovered.  Those kinds of situations are far less likely to happen in organizations where salary info is not a closely guarded secret. 

    Thanks for keeping this issue at the forefront! 

           Michael



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    Michael Holland
    Principal/Owner
    Michael Holland Productions

    Redmond, WA USA
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    Original Message


  • 5.  RE: Update from Laura Lott: Leading by Example, Not by Mandate

    Posted 10-08-2018 02:21 PM

    Mr. Orselli makes a good point.

    AAM members should note Pres. & CEO Lott's first statement about the AAM mission says "champion museums" & continues to mention nurturing excellence through cooperation with "our members" & collaborators.  I believe AMM individual members need to begin to question whether the AAM also champions the interests of members who happen to be individual "museum workers" as well as the AAM champions the interests of museums as institutions.  May I suggest that the interests of institutions as employers do not always match the best interests of their employees.

    I always like to remind interested parties that the AAM Code of Ethics for Museums (2000) states in the same sentence that the governing authority of museum institutions commit themselves to protect and enhance not only the museum's collections, programmes, physical, and financial resources, but their "human resources" as well.

    Sadly, as the AAM Constitution presently stands, AAM members are not permitted to resolve to direct the AAM on any substantive matter (other than to amend the Constitution) when AAM members might wish to have the AAM investigate and/or take action on whether member institutions actually are protecting the best interests of their human resources. 

    Food for thought & potential amendment of the AAM Constitution.



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    Paul C. Thistle
    Director/Curator (retired)
    Stratford ON
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    Original Message


  • 6.  RE: Update from Laura Lott: Leading by Example, Not by Mandate

    Posted 10-09-2018 03:38 PM
    Edited by Jaclyn Kelly 10-09-2018 03:39 PM
    I echo what others have already well-noted here: that if there's a "backlash" from upset employees due to seeing other workers' salary ranges, the problem isn't the fact that the salary is posted, the problem is that their salaries are too low.

    I work in a unionized environment.  We negotiate salary ranges with management for all represented positions.  Those ranges are part of the contract; anyone in the workplace can see it.  No one is privy to anyone else's specific salary or wage unless they choose to share it, but the range is available, at least, so internal applicants know what the floor is for a position.

    Another good benefit is that having a negotiated floor to the range means there's a minimum management must offer for a certain position; they cannot lowball the pay based on who the applicant is or if the applicant happens to be a passive or weak negotiator.  There's plenty of data showing that union-negotiated pay decreases the gender pay gap and increases pay for workers of color too; there's no reason we can't get these same results through unionization of this industry too. 

    Finally, there's a concept in organized labor called "bargaining for the common good."  Teacher unions do it a lot.  Basically, it's a practice of partnering with community organizations to generate bargaining items.  The teachers negotiate things with the school district that are good for the community and may or may not actually have anything to do with the teachers' working conditions or compensation.  Perhaps it's time for unionized workplaces to tweak this idea and start thinking about negotiating some items with our employers that would be good for our industry as a whole, such as including salary ranges in job postings and prohibiting the employer from asking for a salary history.

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    Jaclyn Kelly
    Educator II
    Milwaukee Public Museum
    Milwaukee WI
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    Original Message


  • 7.  RE: Update from Laura Lott: Leading by Example, Not by Mandate

    Posted 10-18-2018 03:24 PM
    In 1866, the National Labor Union petitioned Congress for an 8-hour work day, a reality that was not realized until 1940 with the Fair Labor Standards Act.  The seventy-four years in between saw events like the Pullman Strike, the Haymarket Riot, the Triangle Shirtwaist Fire, and countless strikes that all to often resulted in violence. I do not mean to compare the horrors of the American Labor Movement to contemporary efforts to end salary masking.  I simply mean to say that when it comes to making gains for safe and equitable work environments, we have a wealth of history to draw on, and it overwhelmingly does not indicate that leading by example is an effective technique. Real progress was made because people actively took a stance, placing pressure on government to enact laws (mandates) that improved working conditions for all. 

    In the museum field, other organizations have decided to take a stance against the practice of salary masking, a practice the has the potential to discriminate against and exploit museum professionals.  While I commend AAM for the advances they are making in their internal hiring procedures, I do not think that I am alone in feeling as if the organization should be more assertive in their efforts to promote those advances more broadly.  I would ask AAM to consider embracing the idea that to champion museums is to champion those who power them.  

       



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    Kristy Griffin
    Museum Registrar

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    Original Message


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