Let’s talk living wage.
Starting January 1, 2022- twenty one states will be increasing their minimum wage. This is great news!
But lets not forget about the living wage.
A living wage is determined by the average costs to live in a certain area while a minimum wage is set by the law. I advise you to look them both up for your city.
So even though many states are finally starting to move their minimum wage pay in the right direction, unfortunately still, it’s simply not enough to pay workers at or beyond what it actually costs to live.
There was approximately 5 years between getting my Masters Degree and getting to a comfortable-(ish) place where I could pay my bills and was no longer having dreams of my teeth falling out. Dreams about losing teeth can represent financial insecurity, and I couldn’t shake them for years. Despite making close to living wage in a verrrry expensive city, I was still financially unstable. I had an apartment with 3 roommates where I slept in an interior room- meaning I had no windows (which yes, is in fact illegal) all so that I could afford the cost of living in Washington, DC in my 20s. Our apartment was in a nice neighborhood, but I’ll spare you the details about the roach problem. I had to make tough decisions about activities I could or could not participate in because I didn’t have money to afford them. I would take metro everywhere, even at unsafe hours, because I couldn’t afford a taxi or uber. I made tough decisions because I was on such a tight budget, and yet on paper, I was making the living wage.
Not what you’d expect for a museum professional with her Masters degree, is it? Definitely not what I anticipated upon graduating with two degrees and over $80,000 in debt.
Well let’s see: I was making a net pay of about $25,000, which equals about $12 per hour. DC’s minimum wage in 2011 was $8.25, but the living wage was $12.50. I also didn’t have any children to provide for, which would have made the gap that much wider.
Why is this important? The gap between minimum wage and living wage keeps growing. The cost to live keeps going up, and the minimum wage stays the same. Finally some states are starting to catch onto this like in Florida where a law was passed to increase the state minimum wage from $8.65 to $15 by the year 2026. That’s great. Don’t get me wrong, it’s progress and should be celebrated. But it’s slow progress, and its still not meeting the living wage in Miami at this very moment, which will undoubtedly increase in the next 5 years.
Why is it important to know these numbers? Because if your experiences have been anything like mine, then there was a time when you also struggled to pay the bills and now you might find yourself in a position to be able to advocate for your staff’s salaries.
I have successfully advocated to increase our institutional minimum wage twice since I started in 2017. When I arrived my team was making $12 per hour and the living wage was $14.69. Within months after I started we increased it to $15. This past year I advocated again for another increase to $17 per hour as the living wage had increased to $16.31. The trend you may be noticing is that we always set our minimum wage higher than the living wage. That enables us to be competitive in the job market and to keep our staff happy.
I know talking salaries can be tricky. Thankfully I see that more museums are starting to post salaries in job descriptions. There are useful tools where you can look up salary expectations like on Glassdoor.com and the Art + Museum Transparency spreadsheet started in 2019. Most importantly is that those of us with any voice, or any power in the museum, must advocate for our frontline staff. The more we advocate for them and constantly reflect upon and edit salaries, the stronger our institutions will be. Even if you’re thinking “it’s not that easy, my museum just doesn’t have the money”, keep up the fight. Keep advocating. Eventually your voice will be heard.
