A Message from Tom O’Connor on Salary Transparency
Effective immediately, Tom O’Connor Consulting Group will only conduct searches on behalf of clients who agree to disclose either a salary range or salary estimate within the job description/position profile. This is in accordance with our standards and values with regard to equity, and we also simply believe it is a practice that bestows the respect that candidates and job-seekers deserve. We applaud recent legislation in New York and Colorado that makes this a legal requirement in those jurisdictions. It is not the total extent of what we (or anyone) should do to ensure equitable processes, but as of today, it is not a point on which we will compromise.
We have worked with reasonable people on both sides of this issue, and we express our gratitude to the many activists across industries who have led the way. Two common perspectives we hear in opposition to salary transparency are that it removes the ability to negotiate, and that it causes all candidates to ask for the top of the stated salary range. These assertions are simply not true in our experience. Disclosure of estimated salary has had almost no impact on our ability to negotiate, and in our experience, candidates are very reasonable in “sizing up” their experience to the range offered. As an industry, we need to give our candidates–and more broadly, our people–more credit and respect.
If a leader is hoping to hire a qualified candidate for less than their role is worth to the organization, this is a perpetuation of the system of pay inequity that is directly tied to our industry’s current hiring challenges being felt in so many corners. Our stance on this issue is not new nor is this issue unique to the arts or not-for-profits, but it is my sincere hope that our field can collectively model the type of equitable, human-first practices that should be the hallmark of public good companies. We have been advocating privately with our clients in this area with great success for several years, and are proud that it will no longer be an optional aspect of our search process.
Finally, we acknowledge that not all organizations are prepared for salary transparency at this moment for different reasons, and that this will lead some potential clients to take their business elsewhere. We are clear-eyed about this potential loss, and we respect every organization where they are. This is where we are.
Onward,
Tom
Tom O’Connor is the President of Tom O’Connor Consulting Group. TOCG is a NYC-based arts consultancy with a human-centered approach, offering two complementary services: organizational strategy and executive search. Tom has spent nearly 20 years working in the cultural sector, is on the faculty of the graduate Theater Management program at the David Geffen School of Drama at Yale, and received his MSW in Clinical Social Work from Fordham University.
