kevin wooldridge Wrote:OK its Christmas Eve and the Ghost of Christmas to Come falls through the door steaming and says 'damn I forgot your present, Kev. OK here's the deal. You can have one wish. Starting with a clean slate you can set the minimum wage levels for all UK based archaeologists effective from Jan 1st '.

So the levels I chose were:

1: fresh from college:?
2: 5 years experience: ?
3: 10 years experience: ?
4: 20 years experience: ?

ken_whittaker Wrote:I expected my figures to elicit the response of those salaries are “miles off” and “which planet is he on”.... it was so predictable. But the figures are what they are, those salaries exist.

Stick your head in the sand and dismiss them. I personally know the sense of romance impoverishment can bring and understand the conceit that a chosen craft is better for suffering. Never really brought much comfort though.…

Alternatively it might be worth exploring how those figures come about. Its’ no secret, simply a collective adherence to both professional and commercial standards, achieved through market processes, not because of institutional barriers to entry. And yes, this is the realm of professional construction industry services, be they designer/architects, quantity surveyors, planners, etc.

A place at that table has been established, but as a profession we are simply not prepared to collectively take up the seat. Sadly too many vested interests prefer to lead the profession toward greater introspection, marginalisation and the institutionalisation of failure. Preferring instead to evade commercial practices that might raise the bar, as culturally incompatible to the profession’s sense of itself, dismissing the benefits that outweigh inevitable compromises. An embracing, pervading and endemic alienation on the part of many practitioners perhaps makes this outcome increasingly inevitable.

That is simply a planet that, in the end, I chose not to occupy.