A WORD FROM THE PRESIDENT

Recently, I have had three questions concerning the salary levels of archivists. This and the recent issue of Canadian Social Trends published by Statistics Canada and summarized in the 12 August issue of the Globe and Mail has prompted me to bring members some facts about workers in the culture industry. While many of these facts will come as no surprise to many of us who work in the archival mines, they may be of interest to members. They will provide us with some level of assurance that, while often underpaid and , heaven forbid, under-appreciated, we are a significant employment group which produces goods and services which our clients and customers consume with apparent satisfaction.

The culture industry is composed of those who, directly or indirectly, perform work in the culture sector. The 156,000 culture sector workers (1993) composed approximately 1% of the Canadian work force. They are painters, sculptors, dancers, actors, performers, designers, directors, choreographers, museum technicians, librarians, film broadcast technicians, managers, teachers in art and music, writers and archivists. Compared to other groups in the labour force, workers in the cultural sector are better educated with almost 45% having university degrees -- three times the rate for the average population. Teachers and managers of heritage institutions such as museums, libraries and, one presumes, archives are most likely to have a degree but amongst those who work in clerical, sales and service jobs in the sector, 17% have degrees as well.

Of the total culture work force of 156,000, 58,800 were authors, actors and performers. The median income for these artists was $19,400, with the average artist making $25,400 per year. This was in sharp contrast to other cultural workers (including archivists) whose median income was $30,000 with an average income of $34,600. The study showed that the income of 80% of the artists and 90% of non-artists came solely from the culture industry, indicating that many work at more than one job. Not surprisingly, teachers were the best paid with an average annual income of $52,600, followed by managers of art and cultural institutions at $44,700 per annum. At the lower end of the scale, museum technicians earned the least with an average income for their work of $14,700. Archivists' and librarians' median salary of $30,000 is exactly the same as the median salary collectively for all the non-artist group.

Based on the above, it would seem that archivists' salaries both as professionals and as managers are in the upper range of those paid in the cultural sector. However, having said that, these are medians and averages and do not reflect the grossly inadequate salaries of most of our colleagues who, if paid at all, are paid very little. Nor does it indicate whether these incomes are appropriate to the level of intellectual and physical work that all perform. Nor does it reflect the reality of the 1990s of part-time and contract work which may prevent many from building a stable and rewarding career. This is all the worse when it is realized that we as a community are some of the most highly educated workers in the country.

It must be our love of our work which sustains us -- the people whose documentary heritage we preserve certainly do an inadequate job of sustaining our endeavours.