On Tue, 16 Jan 1996, Kevin Allen wrote:

> I think Lisa Falk has a very nieve concept of what bountiful rewards await the
> museum professional.  A lot of us live under this $25,000 poverty line to be a
b
> le to work in a museum.  Is it fair?  No.  Is it impossible?  Certainly not.
W
> here did the idea of museum work as an inroad to wealth and fame come from?
> Downsizing and low wages for overqualified staff is nothing new, and it looks
l
> ike it's going to get worse.  Hopefully something will reverse this trend.
>                                Cheery Museum Tech, Kevin Allen

Nieve I am not.  I did not get into the museum profession to become
rich.  Nor did any of us I assume.  I've been paid from $13,000 a year to
$36,000 year working as a museum educator.  Yes, one can live on $25,000
a year, but not easily. The position being advertised was for $15,000 a
year or $7.21 an hour before taxes.  You can bet that that position will
require some weekend and evening hours (for programs not just homework) in
addition to the normal daytime hours. I bet that unless they are subsidized by
another family member or other riches they will need a second job in
order to live passably.  This was advertised as a professional position.
There are some museum internships that pay nearly this amount for someone
in training. One point that I made in my original and
subsequent post that seems to have been ignored or missed is I wondered
if the curator of the museum was being paid as low as the Volunteer
Coordinator, who more than likely is responsible for staffing most of the
museum's public operations and probably some of it's research capacity as
well...

Yes, I know we do our work for the love of it.  But desiring a liveable
wage so that you don't have to have a second job is not wishing for the
stars.

Lisa Falk
(I've worked for the Exploratorium, ASTC, Smithsonian and others)