Museums and Cultural Sites: Utilizing the Paycheck Protection Program to Keep Workers on Payroll and Examining Workforce Statistics
By Scarlett Hoey, Manager of Membership and Development, New England Museum Association
Shuttered museums, remote work, and no in-person visitors -- the museum field has been hit hard by the pandemic. One way the government has tried to alleviate the economic pain is through the Paycheck Protection Program, which provides forgivable loans to nonprofits and small businesses to keep staff paid during the pandemic.
So, has the program helped the museum field? Analyzing figures from the Small Business Administration (SBA) and Bureau of Labor Statistics, this NEMA report on Museums and Cultural Sites illuminates how New England museums utilized the Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) and examines museum field employment nationally.
Regionally, the PPP preserved a reported total of 7,414 jobs among 468 loan recipients in the New England museum field. While some loans were larger (16 greater than $1 million), most were much smaller with 80% below $150,000, and 50% below $40,000. Due to the parameters set by the SBA, the largest museums were likely not eligible for a PPP loan, which was generally limited to entities with fewer than 500 employees or $30 million in gross receipts.
Nationally, 5,963 museum field entities received loans, preserving a total of 101,707 jobs. Even with this funding source, museums have not been able to avoid furloughs and lay-offs. In fact, the museum field has suffered greater job loss than the broader economy. For the last three months, the museum field has been around 30% below 2019 employment levels, while the job losses in all industries was between 9-13%.
While the PPP has been useful for helping many museums keep workers on the payrolls, it is also a warning of future job loss if museums have used up their PPP funds before sufficient income sources are restored. The museum field must plan now for how it will survive a longer downturn.
While congress debates additional economic recovery legislation, the PPP funding is still available for museums, institutions, and self-employed workers who have not yet applied. The deadline for PPP funding was August 8. Learn more about the program on the SBA website.