On April 17, workers at PEN America, the largest of the one hundred centers worldwide that comprise PEN International, a century-old organization devoted to the promotion of intellectual cooperation and mutual defense among writers, held a rally outside the organization’s headquarters in lower Manhattan. Decked out in red union shirts, the workers’ chants echoed down Broadway. They were hoping to pressure management to speed up bargaining a first contract, which has now dragged on for eighteen months.

Workers at the PEN America United (PAU) rally spoke to the crowd about low pay at the organization, with one member holding a sign comparing CEO Suzanne Nossel’s $465,000 salary to the $48,500 minimum salary management has proposed at the bargaining table. That’s well below a living wage in New York City and, according to the union, much lower than the current median salary of union members (for perspective, Scholastic, a comparable institution, recently agreed to a wage floor of $65,000).

“Are fair wages banned, too?” read one PAU member’s sign.