The sorry story about my "nostalgic" experience is that I was a grad
student working full-time.  I made $23,000 and I took over a $10,000 pay
cut to get into the museum business.  I did have a full-time working
spouse, car payments and house payment (which I still do by the way), but
the decision one makes to work for a museum is not a light one.  I did
not have family to help me, and I was certainly a "working class" person
until I made the jump into the "professional" world.

Let us all be very aware that the pay scales in the museum non-profit
sector have never been high for the curatorial and registrarial staff,
but the administrative side is always up there.  The same may be said for
other types of non-profits where the general pool of workers are not
highly compensated as the adminstrative staff.  This is not an issue of
black or white, whether you are black or white (or any other number of
ethnic races), you'll still get crappy pay, unless you are the director.

As you can see, museum workers are strongly committed to their field, and
will take a lot of abuse for the pay, but let's not kid ourselves, we
always have an eye open for the better opportunity, and if it comes your
way you would be doing yourself a disservice not take it with both hands.
 Making judgements about people one knows nothing about can be a bad
habit.

O
Olivia S. Anastasiadis, Curator
Richard Nixon Library & Birthplace
18001 Yorba Linda Boulevard
Yorba Linda, CA  92886
(714) 993-5075 ext. 224; fax (714) 528-0544; e-mail:  [log in to unmask]

On Wed, 29 Jul 1998 12:06:49 -0400 "Jim O'Connor" <[log in to unmask]>
writes:
>An interesting question (to me), and one for which I don't have an
>answer
>is this:  In what way does the failure of institutions to pay a living
>wage
>restrict the pool from which their staff is drawn?  Isn't it true that
>museum staff (certainly art museum staff) is almost universally white
>and
>largely from middle-class/upper middle-class backgrounds?
>
>Many people on the list report almost nostalgically (maybe almost
>smugly)
>about their low-paid, beginning jobs.  How was taking that job
>possible?
>Certainly it would be very difficult for people with families or other
>responsibilities.  One suspects that at least some who remember the
>hard
>times had assistance from family--supplemental cash, maybe, or a
>co-signer
>for a loan.  Working class people may not have those resources.
>
>I'm always interested when I hear of museums "reaching out" to
>African-Americans, members of other minority groups, immigrants and so
>on
>when they wish (very sincerely) to address "their" issues.  An
>institution
>whose wage structure didn't preclude the employment of people from
>disadvantaged, working-class or lower class backgrounds might find
>that
>knowledge right at home.  And an affirmative action program in an
>institution that pays less than the cost of child care might be in
>trouble,
>huh?
>
>___________________________________________________
>Jim O'Connor
>[log in to unmask]
>

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