How dare you be "somewhat tired" of the wage discussion?  These are very
real issues which will affect the number and quality of people working in
the museum field, yourself included.  Don't rationalize your low pay. or
anyone else's, as the way of the museum world; in Joe Hill's words, "Don't
mourn--organize."  A field whose members are scrabbling to be regarded as
professionals ought to begin by paying professional-rate salaries.  At
least at the level of schoolteachers, accountants, pharmacists, and other
less exalted professions, none of whose members are asked to donate
volunteer time in hope of a paying job while meanwhile working another job
to support themselves and their families, plus pay off student loans which
seem more and more a vain waste of money and academic work.  How dare you,
madam?  J'accuse!

On Sat, 1 Aug 1998, Elizabeth Stith wrote:

> I'm a Director and believe me I get what everyone, beginners and Olivia, would term "crappy pay".  I am single with no spousal  income to rely on.  I do get a large portion of my health insurace paid by my board but not all and I have a retirement plan which I was able to stay in when I left my previous position.
>
> The other side of this is that I know more about the budget than most of my board members and I am well aware that they pay me as well as they can and have given me raises as soon as they were able to do so.
>
> I think that putting a dollar value on anyones degree is an exercise in futility and I'm getting somewhat tired of this discussion.  I apologize for adding to it.
>