What car does an archaeologist drive?

[Oxbeast]

I earn enough for them to start taking contributions from my salary, but not enough to cover the annual interest, so the loan is still getting bigger. I think the assumption was that I would be earning somethign like the national average by now. Ha, I say. Ha.

Until very recently I drove a 12 year old Fiesta which you could only get into by climbing in and out of the boot. I loved that car until the exhaust fell off. Now I've got an 11 year old Clio which my gran used to drive. It still smells of parma violets.

[historic building]

Every other aspect of the building and construction trade is 'competitively tendered' so why is it that archaeology appears to come out worst?

?150 million a year industry, 6,000 people employed full time therefore each archaeologist generates ?25,000. That is why the pay is bad.

I drive a small, cheap to run, reliable hatchback.

[vulpes]

Fiat coupe 16v turbo http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fiat_Coup%C3%A9 - sort of a sporty old banger and pretty distant from a Landy. But then I am from Doncaster, and from the next village to Twatty Clarkson [:I]

It is, however, currently at the menders! Just say no to scrappage.

[the invisible man]

HB beat me to it: not only does the rest of the construction industry operate on a competitive tendering basis but so does almost everything else in the western world.

I have a Discovery, which is expensive but I like it. At work we use Japanese 4x4s.

[Paul Belford]

Did you put Boudica wheel trims on it a la Clarkson? Handy in South Yorkshire I would have thought.

I drive an elderly Saab. It carries lots of kit in turbocharged luxury, but sadly isn't very cheap to run.

[Pippyn]

Discovery Td5. Brilliant but not fantastically economical. And technically its not mine. I couldn't afford to have my own car.

I'll be the second year to graduate with the new top up fees. We don't have to start paying back the loan until we're earning about ?15k a year, which will never happen in field archaeology. The debt gets wiped off after 25 years (if you haven't paid it off, which I feel is a more likely scenario).

[Redben]

Ditto Pip, but my wrists will have gone far before your back. I bet my student loan on it.

I can't drive so i take the train/bus/bike/feets to site. Which doesn't work well for commercial pipelines.

4 inch archaeologist's pointing troll- the next big thing for small find management

[historic building]

As I said earlier the archaeological market is worth ?150 million, 6,000 archaeologists, personally I think that is an overestimate of the number of people chasing that ?150 million. If this is the case then, on average each archaeologist is only generating ?25,000 per year to pay their wages, support a company and petrol various landrovers.

3,000 archaeologists competing for ?150 million of work only bumps the fee level per archaeologist up to ?50,000 - this is still very low. Basic financial management should show that wages should cover only 1/3 of the fees someone is bringing in. So an archaeologist, to earn ?15,000 should be doing ?45,000 worth of work to ensure that companies are stable, make profits and have reserves of cash.

On a market of this size you only need 1,500-2,000 archaeologists to ensure people are able to earn an adequate level of fees to provide for their pay assuming the pool of cash in the market stays stable.

[BAJR Host]

Had not looked at it like this.. well described.

perhaps I better not buy a landy after all!

Constant development is the law of life, and a man who always tries to maintain his dogmas in order to appear consistent drives himself into a false position.
Mohandas Gandhi

[mercenary]

Have a 12 year old VW van myself. Newest vehicle I've ever owned by far, but it doesn't work terribly well.

You can have a tolerable standard of living on an arch wage If ou have tolerated a poor wage for many years and have climbed the ladder a bit.

AND more importantly given up hope of certain things the majority consider essentials like a house and a family.