Working at an art museum in the United States is not all it’s cracked up to be. As public institutions, museums regularly emphasize the social value of art throughout history, achieving high levels of prestige based on the quality of their research and visitor experience. One would expect, then, that museums might embody the ideals promoted in their own programming by materially benefiting the people who make it all possible, from maintenance workers and front-of-house staff to curators and educators.

Instead, for museum workers, wages are low, benefits are lacking, and jobs are far from secure. Upward mobility is only guaranteed to a select few, while the vast majority of workers are relegated to hourly positions and temporary contracts.

With income disparities at an all-time high, museum administrations are making vague promises to increase pay and reinstate jobs that were eliminated during the COVID-19 outbreak — or, in the case of the Guggenheim Museum, transferring wealth upward while claiming to impose executive salary reductions.