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]