>    Ceres, almost invariably there is some waiting period before a person
>    is eligible for benefits (granted 6 months is longer than usual).
>    Also, a person can always maintain his/her own coverage from a
>    previous job, at his/her own expense, for 18 months through COBRA.
>    So, have pity on the small employer.
>
>    Eric Siegel

>When one considers museum staff salaries, covering my own health benefits
>for 6 months would cause me to pity the employee of the small
>organization.  If the museum considers the job important enough, they'll
>find a way to provide the rewards necessary to get what they need in the
>employee.  Ah, but there's the rub ...

I'm sure the museum values this employee highly.  It's the board/city/it
who funds the money that probably doesn't value it.

Ya know, not to be bitchy but I'm getting tired of people whining about
museums not paying enough and equating that with the museum not caring about
its employees.  I'd suspect, more often than not that the museums in question
aren't the culprits but the funding organizations behind them that are to blame.
I applied for a director of education/volunteer position at a small house
museum in Alexandria, VA that paid $9.53/hr or so.  That's under $20K per year
and they prefered master's degree canidates.  Having worked for the City of
Alexandria before, I know that the funding was less than adequate for the
more cultural aspects of the City's programs.

I would also suspect at museums in much smaller areas like where I was in the
Shenanadoah Valley, they just don't pull in enough money to pay people what
they are worth and the towns that they are in don't generate enough revenue
to help them either.  Do we shut down all those museums just because they
don't pay their employees enough or do we keep them open at less than adequate
salaries?

Heck, even at the Federal level where I'm at with the Smithsonian, the pay
isn't that much better but at least it is regulated through the GS pay-scale.

I'd like to hear a solution to this other other than the usual gripes.

Deb Fuller