28th August 2004, 08:25 PM
You want to know where the rest of the money goes? Let's nail this issue because it is a red herring and concentrate on real issues.
To explain again, and I'll try and keep it simple:
Among other things (and they are many and varied) there's employer's NI contributions, holiday and sick pay (strangely rates are set to take into account that people aren't earning fees all the time), admin staff (to do things like pay the excavator's wages, keep the business running, do personnel kind of things like contracts) insurance, premises, rates, fees to other professionals (eg acountants, surveyors, helath and safety advisors), stationery, consumables, vehicles, tools, capital equipment (like computers, bit difficult without them nowadays) and software and OS licences. Maybe even some phones. Cameras and film perhaps? Oh and there's training. And perhaps even some outreach (cos no-one else will pay for it). And if you're really lucky we might even follow health and safety law and comply with that (surprisingly that doesn't come free either).. and...and if you really want me to go on and bore you rigid, then I can but I hope you get the picture.
Oh yes I forgot annual pay awards and incremental progression.
Oh yes, and then, if we do happen to make a surplus at the end, that goes to do silly little business things like providing sufficient reserves and cashflow to make sure that everyone gets paid every month and we don't have to make people redundant everytime the breeze shifts, and also to make sure the bank relaise we are actually solvent.
Archaeology is like any other business (unless you are a local authority unit). It costs to be professional if you are not working out of a back bedroom at home. Look at the publicly available balance sheets of units - no-one is making vast sums of money from exploiting diggers by charging rates of ?130 per day.
Pick on the right target ie our low comparative worth compared to other professions and trades.
To explain again, and I'll try and keep it simple:
Among other things (and they are many and varied) there's employer's NI contributions, holiday and sick pay (strangely rates are set to take into account that people aren't earning fees all the time), admin staff (to do things like pay the excavator's wages, keep the business running, do personnel kind of things like contracts) insurance, premises, rates, fees to other professionals (eg acountants, surveyors, helath and safety advisors), stationery, consumables, vehicles, tools, capital equipment (like computers, bit difficult without them nowadays) and software and OS licences. Maybe even some phones. Cameras and film perhaps? Oh and there's training. And perhaps even some outreach (cos no-one else will pay for it). And if you're really lucky we might even follow health and safety law and comply with that (surprisingly that doesn't come free either).. and...and if you really want me to go on and bore you rigid, then I can but I hope you get the picture.
Oh yes I forgot annual pay awards and incremental progression.
Oh yes, and then, if we do happen to make a surplus at the end, that goes to do silly little business things like providing sufficient reserves and cashflow to make sure that everyone gets paid every month and we don't have to make people redundant everytime the breeze shifts, and also to make sure the bank relaise we are actually solvent.
Archaeology is like any other business (unless you are a local authority unit). It costs to be professional if you are not working out of a back bedroom at home. Look at the publicly available balance sheets of units - no-one is making vast sums of money from exploiting diggers by charging rates of ?130 per day.
Pick on the right target ie our low comparative worth compared to other professions and trades.