In 2022, Rachel and I were adult education teachers in a program that we really loved working in. We wanted to make these positions our long-term jobs, but we were frustrated by the lack of input we had in programmatic decisions.

Rachel decided to try out an idea. In her conversations with coworkers, she noticed great variations between the salaries of different employees at the organization. She wanted to understand how decisions around wages were being made, and if there were ways to make salaries more fair and equitable. So, she sent a Google spreadsheet to our organization’s entire staff. She invited people to share their salary information so that we could all have deeper conversations about our wages with each other and with the management of our organization. Everyone had instant access to that updated spreadsheet, and the transparency and free flow of information felt like a shock. This was such a contrast to the way things were usually done. The simple act of sharing this information felt like a paradigm shift. 

There’s no rule against sharing salary information. Workers are legally allowed to discuss working conditions with each other. It’s just that this wasn’t part of the culture of our workplace—and it wasn’t the culture of anywhere I’d ever worked. 

Particularly in nonprofit work, I’d always assumed that my salary was whatever the organization could afford, and that I shouldn’t ask questions about it.  If I didn’t like it, I expected that I’d have to look for work elsewhere. But opening the door to discussions about fair compensation for all employees was liberating! Of course we should see our skills and experience as worthy of fair compensation.  Our work had value to our organization and the people we served. The jobs we did were as important to the mission of our organization as the jobs of accountants or people who worked in human resources  (positions with higher salaries). 

Conversations about these ideas with coworkers made me feel part of something bigger than myself, and gave me more confidence in advocating for all of us. 

The wage transparency sheet initiated a lot of hard conversations at our organization. It allowed some long-time employees to negotiate higher salaries, but it also made negotiating wages feel very personal, and in some cases, it led to employees deciding to leave the organization. It is not comfortable to challenge the culture of “how things are usually done.” 

Rachel received a lot of pushback from managers who didn’t feel like it was necessary or appropriate to explain their decision-making to their staff. And I’m not sure that the wage transparency sheet made a change in the systemic-wide decision making of the organization. Ultimately, though, it illustrated to me how workers need policies that clearly define how their wages will grow over time, so that workers are treated fairly as a collective, not just as individuals. And the experience had a huge impact on me and some of my coworkers. It influences the work we have gone on to do, the commitment we all have to starting conversations about living wages in adult education spaces, and our understanding of how being part of a supportive group can give you courage to do things you might not do on your own.

Rachel went on to circulate a state-wide wage transparency sheet for adult education workers. With promotion from Literacy Works, adult education workers from across the state shared their salary information. The data illustrated common patterns: a majority of adult education workers worked multiple part-time jobs and despite their experience and qualifications, many were unable to make a living wage through teaching. While the information wasn’t surprising, it gave us documentation of a structural problem. Seeing it illustrated was validating, made me feel less isolated, and gave me motivation to work harder to make change. The state-wide wage transparency project eventually led to a small group of adult educators, including myself and Rachel, starting Adult Ed WAVE.  

Wage transparency projects are an advocacy tool. They document structural inequality and open up a conversation to envision other possibilities. Adult Ed WAVE is our continuation of that conversation. What do we do about this together? I don't know that we know the answer, really, but we're learning as we go, two years later.

You can start a wage transparency project too!

 Why?

• Grow community support for conversations about living wages and working conditions for adult education workers at your program!

• Give yourself and your coworkers more tools to advocate for higher pay

• Educate others about workers’ right to talk with each other about salaries

How?

• Start having conversations about the idea with coworkers to build support

• Make and share a spreadsheet. You can see  few models here and here.

• Contact WAVE for support if you need it - adultedwave@gmail.com

What then?

• Share the information you find - with us, with your colleagues, with a newspaper, anyone who will listen

• Use it as a tool to build support for change.

• Build on the data you have!
  Here is an example of how WAVE built on the wage transparency data we collected.
  We wrote a report to share the stories that we saw in the spreadsheet - It Starts and Ends With the Funders: More Insights Into Turnover in Adult Education in Illinois  

• Keep meeting and talking about these issues with your colleagues (and us!)

• Get in touch with WAVE! 

Questions or comments about this post? Email Bria at adultedwave@gmail.com 

Welcome to WAVE Length! 

The WAVE Length is our new blog to make adult education worker news, information, and action opportunities more readily available. 

This project is steered by the WAVE Length working group with help from all WAVE members. 

The WAVE Length needs all kinds of help - what can you bring the group?

We are looking for:

• creators (articles, essays, research, reporting, videos, podcasts, paintings)

• story collectors (interviews, outreach, transcribing, archiving)

• site managers  (posting, archiving, site maintenance)

• community engagement folx (spreading the word and building the group) 

Something else? We're looking for that too  :) 

Complete a short interest form and then we'll reach out

Questions? Reach out - adultedwave@gmail.com