The numbers are in for my annual examination of archaeology job postings in the US (UK runs on a fiscal year and will be ready in April). My data comes from the job postings on the websites Shovelbums.com yahoo group and Archaeologyfieldwork.com (added for the 2011 numbers), duplicate posts between the two and multiple postings of the same job were eliminated. Even if the job posting was for multiple jobs they are only counted as a single data point as most job postings do not list the number of openings.
This post will present data on pay for Archaeology technicians, entry level positions in CRM (no federal positions were considered in this category). Out of 330 posts 101 gave starting pay and 48 gave highest pay for an average starting pay in the US of $ 13.63 per hr. to a high average of $16.41 per hr . That is an improvement over 2010 were there was a decrease in salaries offered and inline with long term historical averages. The highest pay offered was $23.37 per hr. and the lowest $7.25 per hr. The median for starting pay is around $13 per hr. and the largest starting grouping is between $14-14.99 per hr. with roughly 24% of all positions offer a starting pay in this range.
2011 Pay for Archaeology Field Technicians
These translate out to an average yearly starting pay of $28,350 with a possible low of $15,080 or high of $48, 609 (post from California where cost of living is higher). The high average is around $34,132. There are two important details to take into consideration: one, this assumes that a technician works 40 hrs a week for 52 weeks (real stretch); two, there is great difference in regional pay across the US with higher pay in the west. This last issue will be addressed in a different post.
January 8th, 2012 → 5:18 pm
[...] Open Access Archaeology ← How Much Did Archaeology Technicains Make in 2011 [...]
January 11th, 2012 → 8:51 am
[...] the lab on projects but is not the very top person like the company owner or senior management). As mentioned before that data is gather from job postings and the results were, in $ per hr.- Pay- Archaeology Project [...]
January 13th, 2012 → 9:10 am
[...] and the qualifications need to obtain those said jobs. The data is collected from job postings- See here for more details on methodology. The earlier posts looked atfield tech positions and crew chiefs in [...]
January 14th, 2012 → 1:19 pm
[...] with 2011 data Posted on January 14, 2012 by Doug Rocks-Macqueen After going over pay for techs., crew chiefs, and project managers this post will examine pay for senior archaeologists e.g. top of [...]
March 31st, 2012 → 11:35 am
[...] archaeologists working for the federal government actually does better against beginning positions in the commercial sector that require similar amounts of experience. However when you get to the [...]
June 5th, 2012 → 11:19 am
[...] are two different things. Anyways here are the numbers I have for what people are actually paid for field tech, crew chief, and site supervisor positions. Share [...]
January 7th, 2013 → 12:42 pm
[...] make in the US (apologies to Canada, not enough data to include you) you can see last years here, along with data from other years. The data is based off of job postings on the websites [...]