Things That Must Be Talked About

In the August 2019 issue of LW, we included a link to an article called ‘8 Things You Should Never Share at Work.’ One of the things on the list was discussions about salaries. The advice on not sharing salary information was something with which we don’t necessarily agree. Pay equity is a primary concern for ALA-APA. It is one of the major issues in which we put forth much effort to raise awareness. We address pay equity concerns by highlighting Equal Pay Day every year. In addition, committee members also provide sessions on salary negotiations at the ALA Annual Conferences. ALA-APA works diligently to promote best practices among human resource professionals and library leadership. Our hope is that employers will be fair when it comes to pay for library workers. ALA-APA’s primary area of service includes providing direct support of comparable worth and pay equity initiatives, along with other activities designed to improve the salaries and status of librarians and library workers (see www.ala-apa.org/salaries/).

We realize that talking about your personal salary may be uncomfortable for some people. However, it is one of the ways to bring light to the fact that often, people who do the same work, get paid at different (sometimes unfair) levels. This is particularly true for women and people of color. The author of this article says that salary transparency is important. She offers suggestions for how to handle pay fairness conversations.

Posted in Salaries |Comments Off on Things That Must Be Talked About