About how much does an archaeologist make a month?

Question

About how much does an archaeologist make a month?

Answer 1

This is a little tricky since there are several "kinds" of archaeologists...

Contract Archeologists in the US are folks who are hired by government agencies or private businesses to assess and/or excavate archeological sites that are "in the way" of some on-going project (road construction, etc.).  They typically work for private companies, and have educational levels ranging from undergraduate degrees to doctorates, though owners of such firms are typically PhD-holding folk.  Anyway, employees with undergraduate degrees in this situation typically make a little above minimum wage.  Sounds horrible, but you have to remember... people *volunteer* to do this sort of work, so pay is consequently quite low.  The PhD-holding folks in contract archeology don't get rich either, but they don't starve.  Figure on pay ranging from the low $30,000/year to over $70,000/year depending on the success rate of the company in securing work.

Government Archeologists do work that's about a hybrid between Contract Archeologists (above) and Academic Archeologists (below).  They get the benefit of having relatively stable workloads, but these positions are often on the chopping blocks at budget cut times... Pay tends to range from the low $40,000/year range to the high $60,000/year range.

Academic archeologists are employed by universities or other research institutes and necessarily have to have earned doctorates (PhD, DSci, etc.).  Pay in anthropology generally isn't great as it's often seen as "unnecessary" to the mission of the institution, and in fact, there are lots of anthropologists (supply and demand...).  So in today's market, figure on starting pay ranging from the high $30,000/year range to the mid $50,000/year.  Variation will be due to the type of institution, applicant's background (successful publication, grants, etc.), and cost of living in the area.

In short, if you want to do something cool like archeology, be prepared to sacrifice your standard of living for the coolness of the job.  In my line, for example, I have to turn away volunteers because I have too many of them!  So as a result, I have no need to hire anyone because so many people are willing to volunteer.  

That said... If you love it... I mean really LOVE it... the sacrifice is worth it.  I wouldn't trade the excitement of my research for any amount of income!  I love working with people who can't wait to get to work each day (my volunteers), and nothing beats discovering things that no one has ever known before!

So if you're thinking about it as a career... call a nearby college or university and see if you can volunteer in an archeology lab.  It really is a cool career, so you may find that you don't care about the income!  Good luck!

Answer 2

Archeologists are paid for their field work, and sometimes they must even pay for working on a site with their own money... So it is quite relative... Those who works in the field don't look for a lot of money, but some will work as treasure hunters and it could give them great rewards later on if they are lucky enough... Of course they must deal with the government of the country in order to get a part of the finding...

Answer 3

about two dinosaurs and a teradactal!

Answer 4

Depends on your level, what kind of work you do, and the project.  Most archaeologists in the US work in cultural resource management.  I'm on the lowest rung in CRM, a field tech, and I've got a couple years' experience.  In my current job, I'm making $13.50 an hour with $30 per diem every work day.  That works out to somewhere around $2000 a month.  Jobs in general range from $9 to $18 (government type jobs) an hour, and many come with per diem and hotel accomodations.  Crew chiefs make more, and principal investigators make even more (you need a master's to get to that level).  Unless you own a company, you probably won't get rich doing CRM, but you won't be too badly off, either.