The Board of the Chartered Institute for Archaeologists has announced that it will no longer issue minimum salary recommendations for archaeologists in the UK (12 Feb 2024 https://www.archaeologists.net/news/replacement-cifa-minimum-salary-recommendations-1707746255 The Board’s reason is that it sees arguing levels of pay as the role of unions, not a body concerned with professional standards (like CIfA).

This decision is unacceptable to CIfA members. There is no other industry-wide body which represents UK archaeologists. Prospect Union is recognised by just a handful of major archaeological units, and currently just under a third of UK commercial archaeologists are members. FAME (the Federation of Archaeological Managers and Employers) withdrew from the Industry Working Group last year over objections to wage setting.

In the current economic climate, many archaeologists are struggling financially. In September 2022, the BAJR Poverty Impact report highlighted low wages being paid, high dependence of many archaeologists on their partners or credit, and two thirds of respondents saying their mental health had been impacted because of financial issues. Only around a third of respondents thought they could continue in archaeology on their current salary. The release of BAJR Poverty Report prompted one-off pay rises across much of the industry before Christmas 2022. However, archaeologists need more than one-off salary bumps.

In the UK’s commercial archaeological sector, CIfA’s recommendations have provided the primary motor for income security. By ceasing to issue salary recommendations, wages risk stagnation or free fall, and archaeologists will face increasing financial uncertainty.

Archaeologists deserve to be properly paid for their work, and should have confidence they can afford to work in their chosen career. And they deserve a professional body which will deliver that.

We call for an immediate Extraordinary Meeting of CIfA members to agree that a core function of CIfA is set annual salary guidance for the industry, and also establish a five-year plan for archaeological wages in the sector

[Note: an earlier version of this petition also called for the removal of the current CIfA Board - this has been removed, to focus the vote on the issue of restoring the salary recommendations]

We need around 170 signatures from CIfA members to trigger a vote.

(CIfA members only – we will check all names against the CIfA register. Please include whether you are MCIfA, ACIfA or PCIfA with your name to aid identification)