Hi, Wim, At 06:36 AM 8/16/2006, you wrote: >Unfortunately, once UT hires someone at $16 ph, giving that person >raises comensurate with his or her growth will be not happen. After 5 >years, I finally got a "real" raise this year, but not until I made a >very strong plea. Yup. Most of the "strong plea"s I have made over the years have happened along the lines of: "Well...gee, too bad this doesn't seem to be working...guess it's time for me to move on." That is a real roll of the dice. Sometimes you win, sometimes not. You have to be prepared to move on. Also, I think it is important to know for whom you are working. It really is unreasonable to expect that institutions (however well-meaning they might be) will pay anywhere close to "market" rate in any given market. That's a pretty broad statement; and much will depend on in which part of the country you are working. In the SF Bay Area, the official poverty level for a family of four is ~ $52K per year. Most of the schools in the area use contract tuners at varying rates. The one exception of which I know is SF State, which historically has split the bulk of the work between two positions. The trade-off is, of course, primarily whatever benefit packages are available. None of these are as good as they once were; but they are often better than nothing. I have only late in life learned to pay myself first, so, for me, whatever benefits there might be are more important than they might be to someone who has the business side of the act better together. I know technicians who have come into the profession having either retired from something else and/or having made reasonably good investments, can afford to make the change. Underlying all of this, though, is a point which I think Ed Foote has noted to the effect that, if you really have your technical chops together and functioning, your work and reputation will speak for themselves, and you will, over time, have plenty to do...with or without an institution behind you. Best. Horace
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