Library Workers: Facts & Figures

Title:Library Workers: Facts & Figures

Author:Department For Professional Employees, USA

Full Text & Source:http://dpeaflcio.org/programs-publications/issue-fact-sheets/library-workers-facts-figures/

The Internet, Online, 01/07/2016

Sample Text:

Libraries and library staff provide essential services for schools, universities, and communities.  Americans use libraries for free, reliable, and organized access to books, the Internet, and other sources of information and entertainment; assistance finding work; research and reference assistance; and programs for children, immigrants, and other groups with specific needs, just to name a few.

This fact sheet explores: library staff in the workforce, diversity within the professions, education attainment of library workers, the role of women in the professions, issues of pay and pay equity, and the union difference for library staff…………

The librarian profession suffers from a persistent lag of racial diversity that has little indication of abating….

Many library workers, including lower paid library technicians and library assistants have high education attainment. In 2014, six percent of library technicians reported having earned an associate’s degree; 16 percent had a bachelor’s degree; and eight percent had a master’s degree or higher. Among library assistants in 2014, 10 percent reported having earned an associate’s degree; 23 percent had earned a bachelor’s degree; and six percent had earned a master’s degree or higher.

Among librarians in 2014, 55 percent had earned a master’s degree or higher and 26 percent reported their highest degree completed was a bachelor’s degree….

Despite the fact that the library profession is predominantly female, a wage gap still exists.For most women of color, the earnings gap is even larger:  African American women earned just 69 cents for every dollar earned by men in 2015.In 2014, women working as full-time librarians reported a median annual salary of $48,589, compared to $52,528 for men.A pay gap of 93 percent.

Unions are an important way for library professionals to negotiate collectively for better wages, hours, and working conditions. Unions work to elevate library professions and secure working conditions that make it possible to provide professional service…..

Librarians and library worker union members have leveraged their collective voices to earn fair wages and stronger benefits. Wages and benefits earned by union librarians and library workers are more commensurate with the skilled and professional nature of library work….

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