I would love to hire you. I would love to hire you and I would love to pay
you $15 an hour. I would also like to have some health benefits and a raise,
after my two years here.

I would also like our board to start donating to the society. I would love
for our city to donate more money. I would like for people who visit the
museum to drop a couple quarters in the jar when they visit, and maybe buy
something at the gift shop. I would love people in the community to remember
us when they are making their charitable donations.

Museums and other non-profits operate by trickle-down. I feel confident that
museums value their staff, although you might not always see that evidenced
in the salaries. We need to work on getting the community and potential
funders to value the work that we do in order to offer the appropriate wages
to our employees and interns.

This could also very well start an entire thread on why we are all in our
jobs - and it's not because of the money - but I'll stop here.

Erica

Erica S. Maniez
Museum Director, Issaquah Historical Society
[log in to unmask]

> -----Original Message-----
> From: Museum discussion list [mailto:[log in to unmask]]On
> Behalf Of Lori Allen
> Sent: Thursday, June 28, 2001 10:58 AM
> To: [log in to unmask]
> Subject: FW: Summer staffing dilemma
>
>
> Hello Listers,
>
> Thank you for this thread.  I am interested in the summer staffing dilemma
> topic, however, I am interested from the opposite point of view.  I am
> seeking a part time job in a museum, but for the wages you (and
> MANY others)
> are offering, I would be paying to work.  I am getting discouraged and
> disgusted (again, see below).
>
> As an undergraduate student, I was self-supporting and often
> worked multiple
> part-time jobs to compensate for the low wage I earned at my gallery job I
> needed to gain experience.  After college, I left the field completely
> because I couldn't find a job that would pay the rent even though it was
> full -time employment.  I am now returning to grad school this
> August after
> 9 years to pursue my MA in History with a Graduate Certificate in Museum
> Studies.  I have a fellowship that covers most of tuition and I am married
> with a child, but  I need a part time job to offset the cost of child care
> and communing and other miscellaneous expenses.  I need $9 / hour just to
> break even for child care, taxes, gas, etc.  I can easily make that at
> Starbucks, but I am consistently offered $5-$6 / hour at museums, even
> though I have run my own business for the last 6 years.  Obviously, I am
> over-qualified and a mature, dedicated worker, who is willing to
> take a pay
> cut, but the $6 / hour wages are ridiculous.  I couldn't even
> afford to work
> for that 10 years ago.
>
> When is the museum community going to realize they can't continue
> to depend
> on people who don't really need to support themselves
> (independently wealthy
> / bored housewives / retirees) for their employee base.  More and more
> college students are self-supporting and if we are truly trying to be
> community oriented and introduce the museum world to non-traditional
> audiences, then we need to be prepared for when those new museum visitors
> (and their children) want to pursue careers in museums.  We need to have
> something besides "it's a cool place to work" to offer.  The internet
> companies offer that AND  high wages and you don't need a masters
> or PhD.  I
> love art and history and want to spend the rest of my life working in the
> museum field, but if things don't change soon, you'll find me in a green
> apron relishing my free coffee, health benefits and stock options (all
> offered to those working at lease 20 hours a wk).  My family does
> come first
> and I will not sacrifice my daughter's needs because my job
> doesn't pay the
> bills.
>
> Lori Allen
> Graduate Student,
> University of Missouri - St. Louis
>
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