To give more detailed information on pay for different positions on the Jobs in British Archaeology post here is a break down of advertised jobs for excavators/site assistants/Fieldwork Staff/Assistant Archaeologists (Site Assistants) etc.
You can see the methodology here on how these numbers were collected in total 40 job postings are represented here. As mentioned in methodology postings that don’t specify how many positions are available are counted as one. This means while 40 advertisements are used as the dataset the actual hiring was much higher.
Average pay–
| £ 16,612.29 |
Lowest pay offered–
| £14,462.00 |
Highest pay offered–
| £21,434.00 |
You can see that there is quite a range in possible pay. Here is a distribution of starting pay (lowest pay)to give you a better idea of what pay is like for this position-
| £14,000-14,999 | 3 | 8% |
| £15,000-15,999 | 23 | 61% |
| £16,000-16,999 | 6 | 16% |
| £17,000-17,999 | 3 | 8% |
| £18,000-18,999 | 2 | 5% |
| £21,000-21,999 | 1 | 3% |
Note- a few advertisments list such things as “up to x” meaning they don’t give a bottom range. Thus the numbers above don’t add up to 40.
On average, range between 4% and 33%, the highest pay for any position is 10%. In other words, when a range is given in pay e.g. pay is from £15,550-16,506, on average the difference between the high and the low is about 10%. That means if you have several years of experience expect to get paid about 10% more than those just starting out. The caveat being that in some cases that can be as low as 4% or as high as 33% difference in pay.
THIS IS ONLY FOR PAY. Some companies also give additional benefits such as a clothing allowance. Also, some jobs do not pay for travel or give different rates of per diem. You may get paid less at a job but make up for that amount in other benefits, or not.
Doug's Archaeology 
Jim Finnigan
May 3, 2012
So how does this compare with the British wage structure overall. What would be the average wage for someone with presumably an undergraduate degree but maybe limited job experience.
Doug Rocks-Macqueen
May 3, 2012
According to the HESA survey of students six months after leaving university- 19-21.5k average, depending on location.
http://www.hesa.ac.uk/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=1899&Itemid=239
There is of course a range for different jobs but as with the US archaeology is pretty much at the bottom- http://www.prospects.ac.uk/what_do_graduates_do_first_degrees_how_much_do_they_earn.htm
How is it in Canada?
Jim Finnigan
May 4, 2012
Well its probably like the US, there is quite a range by region and so a national average does not mean a lot. Unfortunately, salary ranges are not often posted. However, it is higher, I am guessing a median closer to $30 k. At $19 K, I am pretty sure you would be below a few provincial minimum wages. However, the cost of living is higher and so its wages in relation to everything else that is important. The average new house price is close to $300000 so its 10 years of wages to buy a house and perhaps 0.7 years of wages to buy a new car.