23rd September 2006, 09:57 AM
"If it comes down to archaeology getting ****ed, or you getting paid, which would you choose?"
Getting paid every time. I mean the nature of excavation means most sites arent ever fully investigated anyway.
Oh and heres a good one. The directors of a fairly large archaeological company, who shall remain nameless,awarded themselves £75K one year to go into their individual pension pots (and this was in a "bad year"). Now theres nothing wrong with that, all company owners/directors do it, but lets consider how much they paid their site fodder. Assuming after tax they're taking home 12K a year it would take a little over 6 years to earn the amount paid into that pension pot in one foul swoop in one year. Certainly by the time they turn 65 they will have a tidy little private pension and the people they work for will be living on a princely state pension. Companies do make money and its about time that workers at Gate Gourmet and Archaeological Excavators were paid more than 14K before tax. True were not essential to the smooth running of the UK infrastructure, but that charge could be levelled at millions of workers in numerous sectors of the UK economy. Is a living wage, really too much to ask for?