Payment & salary

>>> Please see our Pay Parity Table in connection with this policy <<<

What is this policy about?

The Ort Gallery team of staff, freelancers and volunteers as well as board of directors strive to work from a place of Warmth by being a caring employer and adhering to a strict code of conduct. Please refer to our Ethos and Code of Conduct documents.

As part of this ethical framework we come together choosing collaboration over competition. This means that we will always work together, seeing people as individuals rather than representatives of a group or organisation. It also means that we strive towards being equitable by addressing how we can support team members to bring their whole selves in and to unlearn biases we all hold.

We therefore appreciate that our team members all come from different situations, socio-economic backgrounds, disabilities and have different responsibilities which might mean they cannot work the same way as others. They might need more time off than others, they might need to work more than one job to make ends meet or they might wear different hats at different times of the day.

In order to avoid creating unnecessary tension, in the interest of transparency and to ensure we consider equity when paying our team for their work, this policy lines out how to approach calculating wages in a caring way.

This is a starting point

We feel, strongly, that this policy is only a starting point. We require further research, consultancy and thinking time to ensure our payment policy is truly equitable. We do not believe we have resolved all these concerns at the moment. However, we are proud of where we are at and we are sharing this publicly so other can share where they are at and we can learn from each other.

How can we build Warmth and equity into our pay system?

Minimum Earnings

The law lines out that we have to pay any member of staff, freelancer or contractor the National Minimum Wage. As an organisation accredited by the Living Wage we pledge to pay everyone the national Living Wage as a minimum. We know that these minimum figures are often not enough to make ends meet especially for people with no savings to fall back on, in rented or unsteady living situations, with caring or other responsibilities or dependants. We therefore strive to pay our team as much as they would get in other organisations in our industry as long as funding allows for this. As an organisation with no core funding this can prove difficult. However, we will never underpay anyone due to funding situations, people will always come first. Our contracts reflect our financial situation.

Maximum Earnings

Due to our unstable financial situation and because we believe that earning too much money can get in the way of having a strict ethos and code of conduct we have included a maximum earning amount in our Pay Parity Table. We will review this yearly to reflect our financial situation, inflation and cost of living. We will review this more often if necessary.

An access budget is not the same as drawing a salary

We are proud to support all our members of staff with an access budget whenever funding allows for this. This includes unlimited sick days, paying for counselling and the creation of an access rider.

Too good to be true? We believe that trusting our team members is essential when it comes to being a caring employer. We believe that people want to work and are passionate about the work we do, the journey towards social justice and equity and supporting artists and audiences who are severely underserved. We will believe them when they say they are not well and this includes mental as well as physical health. There will be no checks on team members and no back to work interviews. Instead we pledge to support each other, remind each other to be warm to ourselves first, practice what we preach and lead by example. We will take time off when we need it.

Unlimited sick days also includes days take off for caring responsibilities, medical appointments, appointments for dependents and other relevant reasons.

Contracts that don’t stipulate hours

Our contracts do not stipulate hours but instead line out a list of duties we each work towards. In a flat working structure we do not have line manager to hold us to account. So we hold ourselves and each other to account, with warmth and care.

In order to calculate our salaries and freelance costs we might talk about a part-time position or a full-time position. What we mean by that is that the individual commits to working for the organisation most of the time or just part of the time when they are well and in a typical week. We will trust each other to work to our capability, which will vary from person to person and we will never check up on someone’s hours worked.

How do we calculate salaries?

We will decide, as a team, and by consensus, what we can and want to pay each member of staff. This is in the case that we secure core funding. This is not currently the case so we are planning for the future.

A full-time role will be paid a baseline salary of £28,000 per year, pre tax (in 2023) and a part-time role will be paid a baseline salary of £14,000 per year, pre tax (in 2023). This is not dependent on age, experience, expertise, gender, sex, marital status, disability status or other characteristic.

There will be an uplift of £2,000 per year, pre tax for someone with caring responsibilities, in unstable or rented accommodation, with dependents, with a long-term or chronic illness, mental health problems, student or other debt, no savings or other reasons.

The uplift will only be paid if the individual needs it. We will allow each person to make this decision for themselves depending on their circumstances. We appreciate that circumstances change and when they do we will review the decision.

We will not expect individuals to declare why they request the uplift but trust them when they say they do. In the same vein we will trust individuals from more affluent backgrounds to be honest about what salary they need to draw.

We will remind each other that there are lots of hidden circumstances in people’s lives and often things are not as they seem. Instead of policing each other we practice trust and empathy.

How do we calculate freelance pay?

Our freelancers are paid using a day rate. This is a higher day rate that a salaried person would receive as these individuals pay their own taxes, National Insurance costs and other freelancer’s costs.

In 2023 the minimum day rate we pay is £150 and the maximum £300.

Written on: 09/12/2022 and reviewed on 01/05/2023

Next review date: 01/05/2025

Ort Gallery

www.ortgallery.co.uk