BAJR Update: The More Than Minima Campaign

The British Archaeology Jobs and Resource (BAJR) site has recently unleashed a new campaign aimed at highlighting job adverts that pay more than the minimum salary wage.  The More than Minima campaign aims to highlight and recognise any job advertisement on the BAJR website that pays beyond the minima as a starting rate, which helps to promote fair pay within the archaeological industry.  Advertisements that meet this criteria will have the BAJR grene thumbs up logo attached to the job advertisements, so that potential applicants can immediately know that the company and position pay above the recognised and current pay grades.

On all archaeological job advertisements on the BAJR website look out for the green thumbs up logo to show that the advertisement offers a More than Minima salary (Image courtesy of David Connolly/BAJR).

I had the chance to ask David Connolly, who runs the BAJR site and has kickstarted the campaign himself, why he felt it was necessary to bring in the More than Minima campaign now and what he hoped to achieve with it.  This is his response:

“I think the point is the positivity of the campaign.  This is not a punishment driven proposal, it is one that commends the companies that try that little bit extra to provide better pay (and conditions) for their staff.  Flagging these adverts is a way of saying thanks! It also hopefully suggests that paying better than the bare minima is a way to attract staff, who will be more inclined to feel valued.

Of course the campaign will continue along with the skills passport (which is to be ready in 1 week).  The real battle is in getting the archaeologists to support it as well. Not to take below minima jobs, not to accept poor pay and not to continue the fallacy that any job is better than none.

This is a big directional campaign rewarding companies and asking archaeologists to help it grow.”

The new campaign follows hot on the trail of the announcement this week that the rising levels of interest rates and inflation rates threaten the recovery of the UK economy.  Whilst it is hoped that the rise in wages will outpace inflation in the long term, it is news that will worry many.  Archaeology is a profession that has long been undervalued, both in terms of actual inherent worth and in the many diverse skills that the sector and it’s employees actually have.

Here at These Bones of Mine I heartily endorse the new campaign and hope that you to can join in and spread the word about it as well.  We must not, as archaeologists, undersell or undervalue our skilled industry.  As such I believe that this campaign will benefit not just the job seeking archaeologist and the companies themselves, but archaeology as an industry by setting an industry standard.   The recent approval and success  for the Chartership of the Institute of Archaeologists has come at a great time for the archaeology industry, but we must continue to promote the value and wealth of the archaeology profession as a whole.  The More than Minima is one more such campaign and I urge you to back it.

Further Info

• See the BAJR forum for the announcement of the More Than Minima campaign and for some reaction from the archaeological community.