Quote:The IFA is grateful for the support that the letter and petition indicate for its long- running campaign to increase wages in archaeology. Until the profession can successfully address this issue, archaeologists will continue to be rewarded below the level we merit, driving talented people out of the profession before they can establish a career. This situation prevents us from serving either our commercial clients or the public as well as we should.
It is apparent from the letter that there may not be universal support for the IFA?s tactics, but we can all agree on two things: that pay in archaeology is scandalously low, and that the IFA recommended minima are much lower than we would all like them to be. Unfortunately we are up against some harsh realities in terms of market forces, with an oversupply of archaeologists and an undersupply of work.

Quote:The APPAG report 'The Current State of Archaeology in the United Kingdom' (2002) states:
[INDENT]"There is an urgent need to improve pay and conditions for employment in field archaeology so that they are commensurate with graduate entry level in allied professions such as local authority planning officers, civil engineers and university lecturers. The IFA, working with English Heritage (EH) and the other national heritage agencies and Prospect, should create a structure for training and qualifications related to career development that will set standards for best practice in archaeological work, one in which employers are obliged to support the continuing professional development of staff. Only those contractors that meet these standards should be eligible to bid for developer-funded work. In the longer term, the current fragmented commercial unit system which has resulted from competitive tendering should be replaced with a more stable regional, or more local framework of archaeological organisations."

Quote:http://www.archaeologists.net/modules/news/article.php?storyid=4

What we realised we needed was a 3-legged stool, that could support us all firmly if each leg was in place, but would collapse if one failed.

? we need agreed and enforceable high standards
? we need to have those standards insisted upon by curators and national bodies if organisations are to continue to win contracts (?quality-based barriers to entry?)
? we need a formal process for negotiating pay and conditions to make sure we have the right happy and well qualified workforce.

Quote:In 1993, the director of a major English archaeological field unit wrote:

Professional archaeology has now progressed enormously in the realisation that it would neither attract nor retain the best qualified staff on a subsistence-level wage. Archaeology is now an accepted profession that commands reasonable fees. (Lawson 1993:149)

A series of surveys before and since has refuted this view and the results have shown that pay is poor, conditions of employment are far from ideal, and that many within the profession are unhappy about this state of affairs (Spoerry 1992, Aitchison and Anderson 1995, Reeve 1995, Drummond-Murray and Wooldridge 1996, Turner 1996).