BC Alliance Takes Lead: Salary Disclosure Required On Our Jobs Board

The BC Alliance for Arts + Culture is taking the lead on an important issue affecting the cultural sector.  

For many years, we have noticed a trend in our Job Postings service. When it comes to listing the remuneration for jobs in arts, culture and heritage, many organizations are using the phrase “commensurate with experience," or omitting the salary altogether, rather than posting an hourly wage or a salary range.

At the BC Alliance, we believe that this practice is unfair and puts too much onus on the job seeker. It takes considerable time to properly apply for each job – tailoring a resume and cover letter to meet the requirements of each classified, and then preparing for an interview if you are lucky enough to be selected. This article by Vu Le of Nonprofit AF details the ways in which this practice is unhelpful to both employers and potential employees, and at worst, may be discriminatory.

We are all entitled to know what we can expect salary-wise when applying for any job – so let’s change this practice and make sure that we are respecting the rights of the people working in the cultural sector.

As of December 1, 2017, we will not post jobs that do not include specifics about remuneration. We hope you agree that this is an important issue facing our sector that needs to be addressed.

We welcome your feedback about this. Please contact our executive director, Rainbow Robert (604 681 3535 ext. 209; rainbow@allianceforarts.com) with any comments.