Dan,

It took me a minute to recognize your comment in relation to my
tongue-in-cheek comment. For me, no door at Walmart would be equivalent to the privilege of
working on an archaeology site. I suppose that is because I have yet to find
an archaeology site that bores me.

As well, I suppose hourly rates differ from one part of the nation to
another. At the 2000 ACRA Conference in Phoenix, Arizona this issue came up and the
difference for crews was remarkable. Out here in the Far Southwest, people get
paid like construction workers and the rate is considerably higher than in the
east. Some introductory students might get $8 to $10 an hour, but most crews
earn more than $15 an hour and their supervisors considerably more. Actual
consulting rates for Principal Investigators range between $20 and $125 an hour,
but it is all based on competition and I hear monitoring has been driven to a
low of $35 lately. Then again, the cost of renting an apartment is about $1800
a month, gas is $1.99 a gallon, there are a lot of unemployed archaeologists
right now.

Ron May
Legacy 106, Inc.