Valuing the Profession

Archaeology in action

Archaeology in action

Archaeology as a profession is a tough place to work, with pay and conditions well below standard. The feeling that archaeologists do their job as a vocation and are not interested in the money is, in some ways, a sound point; I don’t know any archaeologists who entered the profession to make a fortune but I know plenty, myself included, who anticipated things like career progression, pay rises and earning enough to live on, perhaps even settle down, buy a house and start a family.

The IfA recently made an interesting decision to scrap the requirement for registered organisations to meet specified minimum salaries. At the time, I thought this was a horrendous decision being driven by commercial units in an attempt to cut costs further and stay in business. The IfA have now announced their follow up to this, which will take the form of an open meeting with contributions from IfA Council, FAME and Prospect. So here is a chance to get involved in the process through an open meeting to be held after the conference.

The IfA are advertising it as follows:



  1. what is your current remit?
  2. what can you organisation do?
  3. what will your organisation do in the next 12 months?



Please register your intent to come to the meeting by emailing, so we can keep an eye on numbers. You do not have to be registered to come to the IfA conference to attend this meeting, and it is free of charge. There are limited spaces, so if you want to come along please let us know as soon as possible.