A little over two weeks ago Glasstire covered a developing news story about the anonymous Google spreadsheet that revealed salaries of museum and non-profit workers in the art world. In that story we also mentioned an ongoing salary survey by the Professional Organization for Women in the Arts (POWarts). That survey, conducted last year, aims to reveal data about art salaries in relation to workers’ experience levels, job titles, and ages. The full report was released on June 20 and contains data from a sample size of 997 survey respondents. 2,551 responses were gathered, and 1,019 respondents declined to reveal their salaries despite having agreed to participate in the survey.
The POWarts survey breaks down the data into metrics that are helpful in understanding how education levels, job types, and years of experience, among other factors, affect salaries. For example, the survey showed only a $2000 difference in the salary of respondents with a master’s degree versus a bachelor’s degree ($60k for a bachelor’s versus $62k for a master’s).
Starting salaries, another category in the survey revealed that (though there are some limitations in the availability of data) the self-reported income levels adjusted for inflation showed similar rates of pay between non-profit and for-profit institutions, with $36,750 for for-profits and $35,500 at non-profit institutions.
Other parts of the survey show a predictable direct relationship between higher incomes and years of experience, across both for-profit and non-profit sectors of the art world, with the rate of pay in the first five years of employment hovering around $45k and rising to around $85k and beyond for respondents who have worked for institutions for more than 20 years.
The survey demographics were broken down by age and gender, and conspicuously absent were income disparities, if any, that exists across racial lines.
In an interview on Artsy, POWarts founder and chairperson says of the pay gap between men and women: “There’s no question that there’s a pay disparity… this is not news to us. This salary survey is definitely not just for women. I opened a gallery in September, and of course I want to have the best talent… . As an employer, I need to know that what we’re offering is competitive.”
The full survey can be found here.
