I am so glad you've all put this out there.  I am fairly new to the field. This is my first job out of graduate school and I've been here for four years.  (disclaimer: my job is great!  I love my environment, benefits and salary, the following has nothing to do with my current position)

I have, however, been working in the field since I was 15.  When I was in highschool and college I always had two jobs.  I affectionately called them my "museum job" and my "job for money."  The job for money was always waitressing or retail.  Surprisingly it wasn't until a year ago that I was able to give up my "job for money."  It is appalling to me as well that I read ads for musuem posistions, particularly at small places that are still paying in the low to mid 20s for "jack of all trades" jobs. That means this poor soul is making 12.50 an hour before taxes! An no benefits! I made more than that waitressing in college for crying out loud. For this $10 (after taxes) you know you will be there for every board function and event and are responsible for basically the entire operation.  (don't forget you will be transporting yourself in that car your parents helped you buy in college that really needs to be replaced but you can't aford it.)  

To old and new graduates alike:  This field is very small, the way government funding is going these days it isn't going to grow by leaps and bounds anytime soon. (and if you accept a position in the low 20s, you will likely be writing your own grants!)  There are far too many museums competing for the shrinking pool of grant monies.  Many boards I have encountered and heard about are composed of non-professional older "history buffs" who fell in love with  museums that were operated by women who moved in the social system of the fifties and sixties, made less money than men, and got home to make dinner for thier families.  This is obviously no longer a reality.  

Frankly, it is up to those who want to enter the field, and those of us changing jobs to simply refuse these "worse than retail" salaries. If we keep excepting them, they will keep offering them.  A lot of museums set their salaries based on regional surveys. Its a long row to hoe, but we are the ones who will change the pitiful pay rate. Boards will not wake up one day and say "boy, if we want someone to do this job right, we should pay them more." I have a feeling the message is more like "well, the last one we hired accepted that salaray, and never even asked for a raise .. why should we raise it now? .. besides I don't want to give up my board meeting snacks or the refreshments at our annual holiday party .."  Ok, that part was a little synical, but that is I suspect, what is really going on in their heads.

I think our salaries are the visible symptom of a lot of very irresponsible management.  Museums, particularly small historical societies, operate in buildings they cannot maintain, have poor collections policies and accept collections they can niether store properly or take care of (with staff time or adequate budget lines for supplies or conservation), operate poorly, or not-at-all researched, programming that serve homogeneous constituentcies and present one-sided interpretation that glorifies the past.  None of this is going to get them more funding, or the funding they receieve will be to remidate poor storage and infastructure.

I know there are some people out there who will have big problems with my message here, but I've heard it at every conference I've been to in the last four years and I know graduate school professors and directors will agree.  Please-I am not making a blanket statement about all museums. I know there are a lot of small places out there who are working very hard and believe in their message. But, is their message sustainable beyond their own enthusiasm for it right now, in their lifetimes?  Places that are operating responsibly don't often offer such small pay rates, because they understand that to stay afloat takes a lot more then just their own passion for the architecture of the late 19th century banker's house in their town, or their affitiy for shoe-makers in history, or the work of an artist who happened to be their grandfather.

So I guess the message is that if you are thinking about entering this field, keep in mind that you will probably be paying a lot for your education, and later, for your youthful idealism.  This is a great field with a lot of fantastic institutions and fantastic professionals. If you would like to work at, or be one of these people simply going to school isn't going to get you much more than an offer of $25/year and the opportunity to work in the "museum of the poorly mainted collection" featuring their new exhibit "irresponsible interpretation of boring objects" in Very Tiny Town, usa. If you you think working in a museum is what you want to do, don't go to the MET or your regional art or history museum. Go to your small town historical society and shadow their staff for a day, if they have one. Ask if you can sit in on a board meeting. This is the reality of what you are about to enter, you will learn more about the ideal at school, what you should be striving for, not what
 the reality you are about to enter.

Sorry for the sad message. If you think this in unfair and you still want to enter the field, may your anger drive you to a three figure salary at an urban museum just to prove me wrong!

Good luck!
Erin.

Erin Elizabeth Crissman
Curator
Historic Cherry Hill
523 1/2 South Pearl St
Albany, NY 12202
518-434-4791
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