THE UNFAIR ULTIMATUM: UNPAID LABOUR OR NO EXPERIENCE

GLAM Gets Mindful | Melissa Mertsis

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In a call for transparency early last year, a spreadsheet was started by Michelle Millar Fisher and colleagues at the Philadelphia Museum of Art, highlighting the salaries of museum and art workers from around the world. The importance of this conversation was inspired by Kimberly Rose Drew, who only realized she was being underpaid at The Met because of the openness of her colleagues to share information about their compensation. The spreadsheet has now reached over 3000 entries, sharing museum and art workers' salaries from all around the world. This initiative has helped in opening up an extremely important discussion — what is our labour worth?

Courtesy of Melissa Mertsis.

In the arts and culture sector, especially as students, we are all too familiar with the most unfortunate ultimatum — you either are willing to work for free, or you risk not gaining enough experience to eventually get a job. At the University of Toronto, internships are heavily emphasized by the Faculty and alumni as being integral to the success of Museum Studies students. The part that is not as openly advertised is that most internships are unpaid. Although some financial support is offered by the Faculty, students are essentially expected to commit full-time hours to an institution for zero compensation, with the internship being "for credit" considered sufficient payment. Since students are paying for their own tuition, we are essentially paying out of pocket to gain experience so we have even a slight chance of employment after graduation.

Courtesy of Melissa Mertsis.

ARTNews shared an article about how museum workers can "Just Say No" to unpaid interns, including refraining from reposting ads for unpaid internships or donating funds to needs-based internships. For students, "Just Saying No" is not an option. The museum sector is one that is heavily based on experience and networking, and for students, we don't really get this exposure until we get to this stage in our education. Passing up an opportunity to work for a reputable institution, for reputable folks, in a department that you really enjoy, just because it's unpaid would entirely be seen as a mistake.

At this point, some people may still be thinking that an internship is a privilege, and students should be grateful for the experience, whether or not it's paid. Trust us — we are — but we also have other entirely financial things to worry about. For example, the living wage in Toronto as of November 2019 was $22, with an average rent cost of $2103 a month for a one-bedroom apartment. This year, tuition for the Museum Studies program is $12,038.65 with a post-secondary TTC pass ringing in at $128.15 a month, and a single round-trip GO fare charging around $10-12 a trip from most places in the GTA to campus. A student at Western University described her internship as a choice between gaining experience or making rent, painting an entirely negative picture of interning and the working world.

Courtesy of Melissa Mertsis.

If you currently work in a gallery, museum, or other institution, there are a few steps you can take towards promoting fair labour. First, and arguably the easiest, is to pay your interns. If it's not in your institution's budget, take some time to explore grant opportunities like the Summer Experience Program; a small amount of paperwork for you means that your intern can afford rent this month. You can also use this checklist created by the Ontario Nonprofit Network to see how your institution fares in providing decent work, and hopefully recognize that doing the bare minimum is not sufficient anymore. Take some time to review this research report titled "Interrogating Institutional Practices in Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion," and pay special attention to the concept that not paying your interns entirely excludes candidates that simply cannot afford to work for free. You can also read this community forum (created by Faculty of Information PhD students!) speaking about how contract positions and unstable work in the museum sector contributes to poor mental health and security.

Courtesy of Melissa Mertsis.

The unfair ultimatum — either work for free or gain absolutely no employable experience — is toxic to student mental health and well-being, and promotes accepting inappropriate compensation for your labour. If we start students in the workforce thinking that their efforts and contributions aren't worth any money, we can only expect unlivable wages and unfair working conditions to continue — and we, the students, think this is no longer acceptable.