I have watched this thread of discussion with interest,
because it is pertinent to many of us who work in
museums, academia, or other non-profit situations.  The
fact remains that, for the most part, curators and educators,
teachers and librarians, both preserve and interpret
our collective intellectual heritage, and are underpaid for
doing so.  Why that is so is a societal issue, as much as
it is an issue of funding in individual institutions.

I am also interested to watch the efforts of Yale graduate
students to unionize.  I think their success or failure will
have a lasting impact on both graduate education, and on
perception of the job of education.

As for salary somehow equalling job satisfaction:
there's a difference, I think, between being underpaid and
being paid enough to life free of worry.  I know too many museum people and
artists who work multiple jobs, or who finally leave a field they love
because they tire of the genteel poverty.  And, as someone noted here
earlier in the day, it is harder to live on less now than it was
30 years ago.

All opinions here are my own.

Cheers from the snowdrifts,
Jenni Rodda, Curator
Visual Resources Collections
Institute of Fine Arts
1 East 78th Street
New York, NY  10021
(212) 772-5872, fax (212) 772-5807, [log in to unmask]