The MoMA Index


Increase in MoMA admission prices in 1999: 10%

Increase in average rent for newly-leased Manhattan apartments in 1999: 10%

Rent increase for a 2-yr. lease on rent-stabilized apartments in NYC in 2000: 6%

Salary increase offered to PASTA-MoMA by the Museum: 3%

Median annual rent in Lower Manhattan paid by all households moving between June 15, 1997 and March 1995: $18,000

Lowest starting salary for PASTA positions: $17,000

Starting salary for MoMA security guards: $24,000

Typical cost of education for the academic year 2000-2001 at NYU's Tisch School of the Arts: $37,096

Median annual salary for PASTA positions: $28,000

Years it would take to earn the cost of a 4-year NYU education at the median PASTA salary, excluding all other living expenses
and not accounting for tuition inflation or student loan interest costs: 5.3

Ratio of American women's median annual earnings to those of American men: 75%

Percentage of PASTA unit who are women: 71%

Average annual increase a 5% raise represents for a PASTA unit member earning $20,000/yr.: $1000

Cost of a ticket to the Sheryl Crow benefit cancelled during the strike: $1000

Selling price of George Bellows' Polo Crowd, consigned by MoMA in 1999 for auction by Sotheby's: $27,502,500

Total amount a 5% raise for the entire bargaining unit of 250 would cost the Museum in 2000: $350,000

1998 salary of the Museum's director, Glenn Lowry: $276,488

Date PASTA-MoMA went on strike: April 28, 2000

Date the Museum began offering free lunches in the staff lounge: May 1, 2000

Projected number of layoffs in the PASTA unit due to the building project according to Glenn Lowry in an all staff-meeting in 1999: 0

Projected number of layoffs in the PASTA unit due to the building project according to Glenn Lowry in an all staff-meeting in 2000: 40

Number of lines to get into MoMA on a Friday night since the strike began: 0

Number of New York Times articles in which management asserts that Museum attendance has not been affected by the strike: 5

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