Pay Equity

On average, female directors earned 79 cents for every dollar that male directors earned – 2013 survey by the AAMD (Association of Art Museum Directors).

At auction, the highest price paid to date for a work by a living woman artist is $7.1 million, for a Yayoi Kusama painting; the highest result for a living man was an editioned sculpture by Jeff Koons, which sold for $58.4 million (Reilly, Maura). The wage gap is something we see highlighted even in our cultural institutions, as is evident by the first statistic from the AAMD. WMG is working to make sure that there is fair compensation of women artists for their work as well as the behind-the-scenes administrators that put plans into action. Although awareness of the gender pay gap is increasing, we see that valuation of women’s work is still not equal to men. WMG is working to be an arts organization that puts the idea of pay equity into practice.