Art Work About My Day Job > Met Campaign For Wage Transparency
Met Campaign For Wage Transparency
Met Campaign For Wage Transparency
2022
2022
Met Campaign For Wage Transparency
I have asked some of my co-workers at the Metropolitan Museum of Art to join me in wearing a button on their uniform that states the number of years they’ve worked at the museum and their hourly rate in a strategy titled “Met Campaign for Wage Transparency”. I like to think of this initiative as an art activist, peaceful demonstration for wage transparency. I believe in my heart that the only way to have truthful conversations about the very taboo subject of money and salaries in the workplace is to turn the light on in an otherwise very dark place for everyone to see. I personally feel empowered, not diminished, by letting people know how much I make. I’m happy to share; I hope my openness might offer a new perspective to all the people working out there. For instance, my current $22.65 wage has a long history of personal choices: of choosing to remain a security guard over advancing to a higher paying job in my workplace because of my love of my job and the people I work with. By supplementing it with lots of overtime, I found a way to make my relatively low salary work for me. I had been thinking about launching a wage transparency button campaign for awhile. On April 10, 2018, on Equal Pay Day, I posted my hourly rate on Instagram. I've since created some art pieces dealing with my own personal financial reality--the pin project is an outgrowth of these works. When the NY Times published an article last month, “The Met Increases Its Pay to Guards to Address Covid-Related Shortages,” revealing the new higher starting pay of the Met’s security workforce, I finally decided it was time to embark on such a project. I believe I needed to take up where the article had left off and advance the conversation of what security guards have been earning for years of service. In my effort to promote greater wage transparency, however, I mean no disrespect to the people above me. I’m not pursuing this project out of anger or resentment toward my employer—on the contrary, it’s out of love, really, and a hope we can all move forward together to find common ground. I am enormously thankful and deeply grateful for everyone who ordered a button.
I have asked some of my co-workers at the Metropolitan Museum of Art to join me in wearing a button on their uniform that states the number of years they’ve worked at the museum and their hourly rate in a strategy titled “Met Campaign for Wage Transparency”. I like to think of this initiative as an art activist, peaceful demonstration for wage transparency. I believe in my heart that the only way to have truthful conversations about the very taboo subject of money and salaries in the workplace is to turn the light on in an otherwise very dark place for everyone to see. I personally feel empowered, not diminished, by letting people know how much I make. I’m happy to share; I hope my openness might offer a new perspective to all the people working out there. For instance, my current $22.65 wage has a long history of personal choices: of choosing to remain a security guard over advancing to a higher paying job in my workplace because of my love of my job and the people I work with. By supplementing it with lots of overtime, I found a way to make my relatively low salary work for me. I had been thinking about launching a wage transparency button campaign for awhile. On April 10, 2018, on Equal Pay Day, I posted my hourly rate on Instagram. I've since created some art pieces dealing with my own personal financial reality--the pin project is an outgrowth of these works. When the NY Times published an article last month, “The Met Increases Its Pay to Guards to Address Covid-Related Shortages,” revealing the new higher starting pay of the Met’s security workforce, I finally decided it was time to embark on such a project. I believe I needed to take up where the article had left off and advance the conversation of what security guards have been earning for years of service. In my effort to promote greater wage transparency, however, I mean no disrespect to the people above me. I’m not pursuing this project out of anger or resentment toward my employer—on the contrary, it’s out of love, really, and a hope we can all move forward together to find common ground. I am enormously thankful and deeply grateful for everyone who ordered a button.
