Great Barrington — For the second year, the Berkshires/Columbia Counties Pay Equity Coalition held its Pay Equity Summit event at the Mahaiwe Performing Arts Center on Wednesday, September 25.
Last year, the coalition included six arts and cultural organizations that filed an initial report on its findings. One year later, the coalition has now grown to include 18 arts and cultural organizations, including: Ancram Center for the Arts, Art Omi, Barrington Stage Company, Berkshire Art Center, Berkshire Dance Theatre, Berkshire Museum, Berkshire Music School, Community Access to the Arts (CATA), Flying Cloud Institute, Hancock Shaker Village, The Hudson Eye, Jacob’s Pillow, Mahaiwe Performing Arts Center, The Mount, Susan B. Anthony Birthplace Museum, Ventfort Hall, WAM Theatre, and Williamstown Theatre Festival.
The coalition, which was launched during a Multicultural BRIDGE Inclusive Leadership Cohort back in 2021, is funded in part by the Berkshire Taconic Community Foundation.
This year’s report takes into consideration 51 survey responses from entry- and mid-level employees at 27 different organizations, along with employer survey responses from 19 organizations. The report states that, while there has been some progress made when it comes to pay equity at arts organizations, certain barriers and challenges remain:
While some entry- and mid-level workers responding in 2024 continue to feel their situation is unsustainable and that modest compensation increases do not alter this reality, many are noticing a wide range of financial and non-financial improvements that are making a real difference. Workers report cost of living adjustments that reflect actual cost increases, benefits expansion including health insurance for part-time workers and retirement plan improvements. They also report the positive mental health consequences, and in turn, the palpable effect on staff morale, of conspicuous effort on the part of employers.
According to the report, 61 percent of responding employees reported meaningful improvements to their compensation, including:
- Cash raises and bonuses;
- Retirement plan options (401K, IRA);
- Health and dental insurance, sometimes without an employee contribution, and sometimes for part-time workers;
- Health Savings Account (HSA) options;
- Increased PTO (including COVID leave);
- Hybrid work policy;
- Ability to negotiate salary;
- COLA that conforms to inflation rates, and sometimes beyond;
- More opportunities for paid work during the off-season;
- Overtime pay;
- Mileage reimbursement; and
- Professional development.
However, 31 percent of survey respondents reported that their total compensation did not improve. In some cases, respondents reported that their compensation for their work declined. These respondents reported that they received bonuses instead of permanent raises; that their wages did not conform to state mandated minimum wage rates; that their Cost of Living Adjustment (COLA) increases did not match the rate of inflation; and that their raises fell short of a living wage, basic family needs, and did not reflect experience and years of service.
Employees who responded to the survey listed several continued barriers to pay equity, including receiving no overtime pay, no breaks on the job, regional wage disparities, job insecurity, and employer reliance on freelance workers.
The report noted that the percentage of respondents did not add up to 100 percent due to a lack of reporting of details by several survey participants.
In a separate survey, employers from 19 organizations provided a list of short-term incremental improvements for both entry- and mid-level employees, along with long-term planning to get to living-wage goals. The report lists that the organizations who took part in the survey have annual budgets ranging from $120,000 to $22 million, and that all but one organization reported taking steps to advance pay equity to its employees.
The report lists that the organizations that did advance pay equity:
- Raised minimum wages from the legal minimum by three dollars per hour;
- Raised salaries to match evolved job responsibilities, reviewed annually;
- Gave its employees flexible schedules;
- Revised program plans based on actual personnel costs when workers are supported;
- Conducted a full compensation review/audit and market salary benchmarking led by outside experts;
- Established a new policy that establishes uniform annual COLA increases based on a percentage of the salary of the second-highest paid employee;
- Brought salaries of veteran staff up to the levels of their new-hire counterparts;
- Offered new health insurance that is more affordable for workers and provides better coverage; and
- Provided health insurance to all full-time employees, added health insurance family plans, and eliminated employee health insurance premiums.
In the report, the coalition made several recommendations going forward:
- Continuing to implement pay-equity practices within organizations;
- Identifying one or more of the structural barriers and systems change priorities including housing, transportation, and healthcare barriers; and
- Finding ways to continue to grow the coalition and movement for pay equity, and including entry- and mid-level workers themselves in all aspects of the work involved in the coalition.
In an interview with The Berkshire Edge before the summit event, project co-lead Kristen van Ginhoven said that organizations involved with the coalition will continue to meet on a quarterly basis. “We are all on the same path of trying to figure out how to sustain our organizations, retain our staff, maintain our artistic excellence, and ensure that those working with us are living thriving lives,” Ginhoven said. “We are all committed to learn from each other. There are real tangible ways that organizations have gone about pay equity, whether it has been reallocating things in their budget, reenvisioning some of their programs, looking differently at their staff, or looking for different ways to provide benefits. Sometimes it hasn’t cost them extra money to make a lot of changes. I do think that this is not an issue that is not going to require substantial funds in different ways. That’s where being a coalition can help us, because as a coalition, we have more strength in advocating at the local, state, and federal levels for injections of cash.”
Berkshire Music School Executive Director Luis Granda started his position after last year’s Summit event. However, Granda told The Berkshire Edge that one of the first things he did when he started in his position was to explore ways to implement pay equity for employees at his organization. “The first thing I did was look at the pay structure in our organization,” Granda said. “I looked at how we are paying people and how we could pay our people more. I looked at the entire system of both the school and the wages of the faculty and our staff, thinking about ways we could make it sustainable.”
In order to do this, Granda said that he needed to obtain support from the organization’s board of directors. “We needed to all think about the pay model that we have been using, and finding ways to make changes to the overall model in order to make it sustainable,” Granda said. “It’s a difficult and an ongoing process, but it’s something that we believe in very deeply. It’s worth the work. It’s worth the effort.”
“One of the best places to start is to turn on and ask the staff and the employees about what’s important to them and what’s missing,” Berkshire Music School Board member Lynn Festa added. “Starting the conversations at these levels is important. I think one of the biggest quick changes that we saw that was beneficial was the change in morale for everybody who works for us.”
Wendy Healey, executive director of Ventfort Hall, said that the organization has also taken steps when it comes to pay equity for employees. “In the last year we have increased our salaries for employees, and we plan on increasing them again this year,” Healey said. “We’re going to be increasing our salaries to a minimum of $20 an hour this year for our full-time staff, which is a milestone for our organization. When I first got to the organization late last year, employees were making $15 an hour. To be able to come this far in such a short period of time is significant. It is with the help of the pay-equity project and educating our board and getting them to understand that the minimum living wage is not the same as the minimum wage in this area, so that we now have their support.”
Michael Ibrahim, president and CEO for Third Sector New England of Boston, is on the board of Berkshire Art Center and also served as a consultant for the report. “Nonprofit workers are essential workers, and we need to look at them that way,” Ibrahim said. “I think this summit is a great start, but there needs to be an understanding about what it really costs for organizations to operate. Organizations should not be afraid to ask about what their overhead really is, and how to pay for fringe benefit rates for employees.”
“The fact that employees are not able to make ends meet is a pressing need that needs to be addressed,” Janis Martinson, executive director for the Mahaiwe Performing Arts Center, added. “It’s an equity issue and an ethical issue. I’m a strong believer in positive peer pressure, and that’s part of the reason that we have this coalition. One organization inspires another organization. It’s not just about trying to keep up with each other. It’s about helping to find practical ways to do that. It seems daunting, but when we all put our heads together we find creative solutions in a creative economy.”
View a copy of the report here.
