What do archaeologists make? Advertised pay

Current postings

Based on 31 distinct open postings that state their pay, as of Oct 10, 2026. Hourly and yearly pay are never mixed, and federal pay is kept apart from private and other non-federal pay.

How to read the charts: the shaded band is the typical range (the middle half of postings), the red tick is the median, and the thin line runs from the lowest to the highest posting. Every row in a table shares one scale.

Overall

Hourly pay

Chart scale: $20 to $40/hr.

Yearly pay

Chart scale: $50,000 to $170,000/yr.

By job title

Private / non-federal postings only. Federal pay follows the GS scale and is shown under Overall.

Hourly pay

Chart scale: $20 to $40/hr.

Not enough postings yet to show: Crew chief / field director, Staff archaeologist, Lab & collections.

Yearly pay

Not enough postings yet to show: Project archaeologist, Principal investigator, Project manager.

By length of work

Private / non-federal postings only. Federal pay follows the GS scale and is shown under Overall.

Hourly pay

Chart scale: $20 to $40/hr.

Yearly pay

Chart scale: $50,000 to $110,000/yr.

Not enough postings yet to show: Seasonal & short-term.

By region

Private / non-federal postings only. Federal pay follows the GS scale and is shown under Overall.

Hourly pay

Chart scale: $20 to $40/hr.

Not enough postings yet to show: Mountain West, Southwest & Southern Plains, Southeast.

Yearly pay

Not enough postings yet to show: Pacific, Mountain West, Southwest & Southern Plains, Midwest & Plains, Southeast, Mid-Atlantic.

Pay over time

This site keeps every posting it has seen, including closed ones, so pay can be looked at over the last 6 months, the last 12 months, and full calendar years. We began collecting on Oct 9, 2026. A look-back appears only once we have been collecting for that long, so each figure covers the whole period it claims. Postings are counted from the day we first saw them.

Last 6 months

Not enough history yet. We began tracking on Oct 9, 2026, and a 6-month look-back needs 6 months of postings. It will appear here on or after Apr 9, 2027.

Last 12 months

Not enough history yet. We began tracking on Oct 9, 2026, and a 12-month look-back needs 12 months of postings. It will appear here on or after Oct 9, 2027.

Full calendar years

Not enough history yet. Yearly figures cover complete calendar years. We started tracking part-way through 2026, so the first full year will be 2027, and its figures will appear in January 2028.

How this compares with U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics wages

The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) publishes wages for anthropologists and archeologists (occupation code 19-3091). The figures below are from its May 2025 survey of employers, which estimated about 8,990 people employed in the occupation across the country.

Each row has its own chart scale: annual $40,000 to $110,000/yr, hourly $20 to $55/hr. Source: BLS Occupational Outlook Handbook and Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics, May 2025.

Why the two do not match exactly

• BLS asks employers what they pay people who already hold the job. Postings show what employers are offering for openings.
• The BLS category is anthropologists and archeologists across every industry, so it is not limited to archaeology, and it can include university, government and consulting work.
• Our figures include seasonal and on-call hourly jobs, which make up a large share of the postings we track.
• BLS reports a master's degree as the typical entry-level education for this occupation.

What affects pay in archaeology

• Job title and level. Field technician and crew chief roles are commonly advertised by the hour, while project archaeologist, project manager and principal investigator roles are commonly salaried. Pay generally rises with responsibility.
• Seasonal versus permanent. Seasonal, on-call and project-based work is often paid hourly and may not include benefits. Permanent positions are often salaried and often come with benefits such as health insurance and paid leave. Check each posting for details.
• Region and cost of living. Pay tends to follow local costs and the kinds of projects in an area. Regional figures above appear only where enough postings support them.
• Per diem and lodging. On projects that require travel, some employers add per diem or provide lodging. The ranges on this page do not include either, so they can understate what a traveling job pays in practice. See our guide to per diem and lodging.
• Federal jobs. Federal archaeology positions are paid on the General Schedule (GS), by grade and step, with an adjustment for the location of the job. A posting's range covers the steps within a grade, so where you would start depends on your qualifications.
• Education and qualifications. A master's degree is the typical entry-level education reported by BLS. Many principal investigator roles require meeting the Secretary of the Interior's Professional Qualification Standards in archaeology, which can affect both eligibility and pay. See our guide to the Secretary of the Interior standards and the RPA.

Browse the jobs behind these numbers: Archaeology field technician jobs · Principal investigator jobs in archaeology · Cultural resources project manager jobs · Project archaeologist jobs · Staff archaeologist jobs · Seasonal and short-term archaeology jobs · Full-time and permanent archaeology jobs · Federal archaeology jobs

How we calculate advertised pay

• What counts. Postings that state their pay, from the employers, federal agencies and professional job boards this site monitors. Postings that do not state pay are left out.
• One number per posting. Each posting counts once, at the midpoint of its advertised range (or its single figure). Identical postings from the same employer, such as one job posted for several offices, are counted once so no employer is overweighted.
• Hourly and yearly stay separate. We never convert hourly pay to a yearly amount, because seasonal and on-call hours vary. Federal pay is shown apart from private and other non-federal pay, since it follows a published scale.
• Typical range, median and average. The typical range is the middle half of postings (the 25th to the 75th percentile). The median is the middle posting, and the average is the mean of all postings in the group.
• Slices. By job title (a posting can match more than one title group), by length of work (as the posting describes it; postings that do not say are in neither group), and by region (a multi-state posting counts in each region it covers). Slices use private and other non-federal postings only.
• Minimum sample. A row is shown only when it has at least 5 distinct postings from at least 3 different employers, with no single employer making up more than 50% of them. Groups that fall short are listed as "not enough postings yet." We do not publish pay figures for individual employers.
• Plausibility check. Pay outside a sensible range for the job (for example, a parsing error) is ignored.
• Time. "Current postings" are the jobs open today. The 6-month, 12-month and calendar-year views count every posting by the day we first saw it, and appear only after we have collected for that long.
• Limits. This is a sample of openings, not a survey of everyone working in archaeology. It reflects the employers we monitor and those that publish pay. The tables update each time the site is rebuilt.