Salary Transparency Statement

Statement from the SGA Board of Directors

Atlanta, Ga.-- On April 20, 2020, the Society of Georgia Archivists’ Board of Directors voted to endorse the Society of American Archivists' Ad-Hoc Salary Transparency Working Group's open letter to the SAA Council in favor of a salary transparency policy.  As of June 1, 2020, the Society of Georgia Archivists will no longer post professional opportunities (part-time/temporary jobs, full-time/permanent jobs, or internships) that do not include salary information through any of its organizational communication channels. We will also not accept postings for unpaid internships. 

SGA is taking this step for several reasons: 

• Multiple surveys of the broader GLAM (Galleries, Libraries, Archives, and Museums) field specifically have affirmed that lack of transparency regarding salaries and earnings expectations is a significant concern for professionals at all stages of their careers. 

• Several other professional organizations such as AMIA, Northwest Archivists, and Society of Southwest Archivists have changed their policies on job postings to dissuade employers from posting jobs without salary information or unpaid internships.  

• Recently a group of archivists have included recommendations for active steps to promote salary transparency and advocate for fair wages and hiring practices in our field. In this respect, we are also acting alongside other professional organizations including the Society of American Archivists, American Library Association, and regional archives associations. 

This will mean some open positions available in our field will not be posted on the SGA website or through our other organizational communication channels. 

We believe this step is justified. By keeping salary information secret, employers obscure structural inequalities and enable them to persist. Without salary information, it becomes harder to make the case that one is experiencing pay discrimination. Job postings with undisclosed salary information are a drain on everyone's resources, wasting both the employer's and the interviewee's valuable time and money, even as candidates may not be able to work for the salary offered.

As with salary transparency, a wealth of recent research and reports from the field emphasize the ways in which reliance on unpaid labor in the form of internships further perpetuates systemic inequities and economic injustice, and devalues the skilled labor 

performed in archival institutions and collections. 

In restricting employment postings to paid positions only, the Society of Georgia Archivists stands with archival workers to increase the visibility and accessibility of paid professional experiences for students and work for professionals at all career stages.

Related Resources

• SAA Update: Advocating for archivist pay, view here. 

• Business Archives Section (BAS) Salary Requirement Survey, view here. 

• Endorsement of a living wage for all library employees and a minimum salary for professional librarians, view here. 

• Things that must be talked about, view here.

• Salary information now required in job postings.

• Northwest Archivists Policy for Accepting Job Postings, view here.

• Wages for intern work: De-Normalizing unpaid positions in libraries and archives, view here.

This policy is based on AMIA’s “Board Position Statement on Salary Transparency.” 

View the SGA Board's full statement here.