Museum people seem to shy away from accreditation when it comes to
defining what the requirements are for positions or even  trying to bring
some standardization to the educational preparation for a museum career.
Judging from a discussion on this board several months ago, a consensus
was that free and loose requirements, allowing for people from many
different backgrounds to contrubte to the field in turn contributed to a
much more dynamic profession.  As long as there are no accountable
standards by which the profession subscribes (oh, by the way, is there
even such a thing as a museum "profession?") then salaries will remain
free and loose.

Of course a major factor in the salary gaps between
museum/education/library/cultural/etc. jobs and other kinds of employment
such as professional sports, corporate law or elected officials is the
wreckage wrought by a global capitalist economy which places far more
value on goods with immediate but not necessarily long lasting effect
while leaving "work for the public good" to the whims of that public,
overconditioned to be slaves to consumerism.

Raise the red flag, museum workers!