Regarding the "other work not related to the educator position":

It seems to me that whether this is "degrading", "beneath the
status/station", or just different, this should be a reason to pay more
money, not less, as long as this is something more than a very occasional
jaunt, or an emergency situation (e.g. : the example about being between
cleaning contracts).  You are (even if only informally) increasing the
responsibility of the job.  Personally, I don't find that sort of
flexibility to be against my work ethic, and is sometimes a refreshing break
from the usual tasks (though I concede that cleaning up after a visitor has
been ill on the floor is not "refreshing").  :-)  I find a casual disregard
of strict job descriptions to be de rigueur in all small museums, gradually
diminishing as the organization increases in size.  On the other hand, I
have worked with two people who have quit because they felt that the job
description was not a good description of what they were actually asked to
do, and one who quit because it was not flexible enough!

Regarding salaries in the museum/NPO world:

Yes, I'm in this line of work because it's more than a vocation, it's an
avocation.  Also, my position right now is such that I can afford to accept
a lower-paying job if it gets me where I want to go.  However, that doesn't
mean that I wouldn't like to be paid more.  On the other side of the
equation, I took a course in museum accounting.  One of our assignments was
to balance the budget of a fictional museum.  With largely fixed costs
everywhere else (replacing the HVAC system, for instance), it was very
tempting to shave a little off the raises that the employees were asking for
(and had been waiting for years, according to the scenario).  It really made
me appreciate the budgetary juggling act that presidents/CFO's of
non-profits must perform to keep their institution running.  But that
doesn't mean that I agree with the argument that museums can't (or shouldn't
be able to ) afford to pay more.  It all comes down to income, whether
earned through tickets, special programs, etc., or received through grants
and donations of all sorts.  You may think your piece of the pie ought to be
bigger, but the only way to do that on a permanent basis is to make the pie
bigger.

(BTW, if you're wondering, I did shave a little off the raises, and even
hired some extra development people, planning that they would be able to
bring in enough more money to offset their salaries in the first year, and
be able to increase donations the following year, hopefully allowing enough
to grant the remainder of the raises (beyond COLA increases) that I had to
shave in the first year.  You may all hate me now! (-:     )

Larry Burke
Historical Society of Western Pennsylvania

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