Sonja writes: " I'd at least like to make more than I do now at my job that's paying for my schooling..." I agree. It appears that here we are all in a catch-22. In order to do what we are trained for and what we apparently love, we must make the choices of " do I take a job in my field for a substandard wage and generally not-so-great benefits *just* so I can work in my field, or do I work and train and go to school for many years, and then take a totally unrelated job that pays more in order that I might pay off my school loans and support myself with a modicum of comfort". We'd all love to have benefits, sometimes we'd settle for any benefits, not just great ones. We'd all also like to make a decent wage, we'd settle for decent, since we're pretty assured that in our line of work, we'll never get great ones. However, the difficulty lies in the sad truth that most of our jobs are underfunded, we don't always get decent benefits, and we don't always make enough money to afford supporting ourselves plus subscribing to health care in the event that our employers do not provide any. The problem compounds itself when there is a family to support. It saddens me that we work so hard to finish school and get our degrees so that we may work in the fields of archaeology/anthropology/museums; and aside from the personal satisfaction we derive from doing our jobs well, we seem to get very little from our efforts. I've been following this thread silently, but feel that I must speak. If an employer cannot or will not offer health benefits to its employees, then I feel it should make every effort to build the costs for this health care into the money it budgets for an annual salary so that the employee can subscribe to a health care plan of his/her own. It's still an added cost to the employer, but a healthy employee is a much better asset in the long run to the organization than a sick one who is stressed about paying for medical bills. Thank you for allowing me to vent. Lynita