On Thu, 11 Jan 1996, lisa falk wrote:

> I'm sorry, but I think we need to do something about museum
> salaries....$15,000. for a FULL_TIME professional position?!  Who can
> possibly live on anything lower than $25,000 and even that is a feat
> worth commemorating, I don't care where you live.
>
> This position being adversitsed is for the person in charge of the
> museum's volunteers...I can bet that the volunteers are a major part of
> the museum's image in it's community.  Isn't it important to have a
> person who takes their job seriously and who is taken seriously by the
> institution?  $15,000 doesn't sound like a serious look at the importance
> of this position.
>
> In general, most museum positions pay poorly--why?  and what can we do to
> change this?
>
> Lisa Falk
> [log in to unmask]
>
>
Hear, hear!

Not only are most museum positions extremely poorly paid, so are
archaeological positions.  Just before Christmas I took an informal poll
of professional archaeological salaries in response to a similar ad
offering a position for an archaeologist in the western US.  While I have
not yet fully compiled the results, it is readily apparent that
archaeologists, for their levels of education and training they are
required to have, are, on average, among the most poorly paid professional
people in the work force. The only other field which demands so much and
yet pays so little is museums.

I work closely with a large number of arcaheologists and museum people,
both in government, in the field, and in museums of all sizes.  I am
constantly amazed (and humbled) by the number of extremely talented and
exceptionally well-qualified people out there who are working for mere
pittances.

In my case, however, I can't say that we weren't warned.  I vividly
remember one of my professors telling the class at the beginning of his
introductory archaeology course, "If any of you have any ideas of getting
rich by becoming an archaeologist or by working in a museum, you might as
well get up and leave now.  These are fields you go into for the love of
it, not for the money."  Never were truer words spoken!

Still and all, it speaks volumes about the relative value that our society
places on the preservation of its cultural patrimony when garbage
collectors and letter carriers are paid considerably more money than
archaeologists and museum professionals (and many teachers - especially in
the U.S.).  Nothing makes society's low esteem for our efforts more
apparent than the recent trend of massive cutbacks in government funding
to everything related to heritage, culture, and the arts and the general
lack of public response thereto.

Chris J.-Andersen ([log in to unmask])

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