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[–]LysergicCottonCandy 141 points142 points  (5 children)

I think they're paid a high salary. They’ve been referred to as elites in ivory towers and funded theyre by the Lucas family - the one that Jeff Bezo’d a fucking space station, not just a space shit for a ritual experiment with The Dark.

Pretty sure with Martin lying to need to be hired and the archives being high security enough and valued academic institute, I get the feeling theyre up there with the more expensive tax haven think tanks

[–]timelessalice 37 points38 points  (3 children)

Are they really called ivory tower elites or was that Melanie getting a dig at academics

[–]Meii345The Spiral 17 points18 points  (1 child)

That was Jon in the first episode but yeah i felt he was being a bit sarcastic maybe

[–]timelessalice 9 points10 points  (0 children)

I was sure Melanie had a line about it but yeah I never thought the Institute was an ivory tower. In fact I thought they were a bit of a laughing stock. They probably make Decent Enough money

[–]PluralCohomologyThe Lonely 9 points10 points  (0 children)

It seems more of a dig at them being removed from practical investigation on the ground.

[–]soft_robot_overlord 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Nah. I worked in academia. Salaries are depressed due to an industry wide lack of unionization, a severe overproduction of academics relative to available jobs, and workers willing to live in relative poverty to avoid a 9 to 5 and live out what they pretend is a better work life balance. They are probably paid 60% to 70% of their industry peers (whatever that would be)

And having worked for an Ivy League, if they can get away with suppressing wages, they will. The place I worked has refused for decades to hire enough techincal staff to maintain baseline safety standards. The endowment is more important than the academic or educational mission. I imagine an institute run by a literal embodiement of evil would be run about the same as a hedge fund with an educational outreach program.

[–]MnemonicJohnny 61 points62 points  (0 children)

He pays them well, but he absolutely forces them to do OT with coercive “everyone else is working hard, and they’ll know if you don’t put in extra work” tactics.

[–]stormbreathThe Vast 22 points23 points  (1 child)

The general impression of the Archives staff is that they are generally wildly underqualified for their positions, and have been hired not because of their work histories, but because they either have ties to the paranormal already (Tim and Jon) or are easily blackmailed (Martin). This is because the actual purpose of the Archives is not what it claims it is -- it's trying to cultivate and increase fear in the world, not do genuine research. Staff that aren't capable or qualified will have a harder time of figuring this out, and won't interfere as much by doing their jobs correctly.

As such, the most likely answer is that they are paid better than they personally would be if they had gone somewhere else other than the Archives (to entice them and make the Archives the most appealing job, despite a poor fit) but are paid worse than their positions would be elsewhere (to make sure that actually qualified candidates don’t apply). They're not paid minimum wage, but they aren't exactly paid well, either. Positions that should pay 100,000/year are being paid 75,000/year and are filled by people who are otherwise applying to positions that pay 50,000/year, if that makes sense.

[Note on Martin: Martin lied on his CV and might have looked like a good fit on paper, but he was interviewed by Elias, a man with the supernatural ability to look at somebody and immediately know their worst secrets. There's no way he didn't know Martin was lying about the parapsychology degree.]

[–]allenfiarain 2 points3 points  (0 children)

The Eye feeds on the paranoia of being watched and known and exposed, so yes, Elias 100% knew Martin was lying and hired him just so he could be paranoid under the Eye's watch and feed it with his own fear of being discovered.

[–]Xenicus89The Spiral 37 points38 points  (0 children)

Decent salary but below industry standards

[–]LittleLotte29 26 points27 points  (4 children)

Not minimum wage because they can afford to live on their own, even Martin. But he doesn't pay them well by industry standards.

[–]CannonLongshotEs Mentiras 5 points6 points  (3 children)

If they can afford to live on their own in London they are paid very well.

People keep saying “industry standards” in this thread - what is standard in (essentially) private research? I don’t think it’s a particularly well compensated field

[–]nightwing_shadow 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I recall one of the Q and A's discussed this, that at least Jon's promotion kept him comfortable enough not to leave the job (or push him into too high of a tax bracket that he couldn't afford London), or something like that.

But it's been years since I've listened to that.

[–]LittleLotte29 -1 points0 points  (1 child)

Meh, I live alone in London and I'm not paid well by any means. Depends how lucky you are with finding a place.

[–]CannonLongshotEs Mentiras 3 points4 points  (0 children)

I find the idea that John, Martin, Sasha and Tim all managed to find a place to live alone on the entry salary of a private research institute less believable than the statements!

Edit: We also know they aren’t living paycheck to paycheck - Martin sends money home for his family and Tim does a lot of wining and dining, though it’s possible the institutes expenses policy is particularly lax.

[–]shadowreaper50Researcher 16 points17 points  (0 children)

They are paid well enough to afford a place to live and food. Even if they were paid enough to save up emough to leave, they are unable to make themselves do so. They can't even make themselves quit.

[–]coldtrashpanda 16 points17 points  (3 children)

John is highly unqualified and accepted minimum wage just to get "archivist" on his resume.

Gertude was highly qualified and made far more, but had about the same amount of spare money left over after the C4 budget.

[–]rin_sharArchivist 1 point2 points  (2 children)

I suppose the C4s could have been counted as business expenses.

[–]coldtrashpanda 2 points3 points  (1 child)

She would have had to submit those receipts to Elias tho

[–]yoububblyduck 2 points3 points  (0 children)

He does want the others' rituals stopped, so why not? Could be a baller move.

Ms Robinson, accounting has asked me to clarify a few items on your expense report. Plastic explosives, gasoline and the last item is a tshirt gun? Oh, I see, 4 shotguns. Nevermind, carry on.

[–]Enough_Requirement43The Spiral 6 points7 points  (2 children)

I think Tim and Sasha have a better salary because they were already working for the institute, just not the archival team. Martin has a bit less due to having been just hired. John got a raise when he became head archivist. So like, they're paid enough to rent in London, but not enough to buy. UK minimum wage in 2015 was a bit under £7/h, so I'd say they're paid anywhere between 10 and 15 pounds an hour. But they have good benefits packages.

[–]sparkly_buttholeThe Extinction 2 points3 points  (0 children)

I'm pretty sure Martin has worked there for a while. I can't recall the source for that though.

[–]sad_and_stupidThe Extinction 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Martin worked there the longest though. But he was in the library at first

[–]ThrowawayBeaans69 14 points15 points  (2 children)

I think Elias is a cheap fuck and it doesn't seem like many people are interested so probably standard research/library pay? so not great

[–]jrdineen114 14 points15 points  (1 child)

Except he pays them all well enough that they can afford to live on their own in London, which is, according to the creators, not a cheap city to live in.

[–]ThrowawayBeaans69 3 points4 points  (0 children)

Lol that's very true! It's borderline impossible to find cheap living already where I live and London is for sure worse

[–]Wrayth_Skitzofrenik 3 points4 points  (0 children)

Tim took a spontaneous trip to Malaysia. That couldn't have been cheap.

[–]Trans_Girl_Alice 6 points7 points  (0 children)

Elias pays them well because Peter and Simon would make fun of him if he didn't. Which isn't to say that they don't make fun of him anyway, but now they have to try harder.

[–]Sensitive_Guidance43The Spiral 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Jon and Tim both take spur of the moment trips to other countries, I’m pretty sure Martin moved spur of the moment after season one, which isn’t cheap (and apparently London is crazy expensive), and they seem to go out for lunch/drinks regularly (at least pre show through the start of season two), so I’d say they’re getting paid decently. Coupled with the fact that the Lukas family is filthy rich and funding the Institute, as well. I do think Elias paid less than Peter did while running the Institute though, because Peter is just shown to be generally a much better boss than Elias.

[–]Meii345The Spiral 1 point2 points  (0 children)

As for the institute in general- The Institute is a non profit, and I think they'd be getting enough donations to have decent locals and be able to afford the cursed books and some fancy stuff- but not TOO much really. Theyre not google headquarters level of absolutely swimming in money and so I think they can't be paying anyone an exorbitant amount (employee salaries are usually what costs the more for institutions) even with the Lukas patronnage.

That said, I don't think we've heard anyone complain about the pay in the show, and anyone who mentionned it is living on their own (including martin who still has a sick mom to take care of), so I think they're paid decently for people with degrees.

I also imagine the archival assistants are by default paid well, just to make sure they don't try to quit too hard and realise they in fact can't. Or they're not paid a lot because they can't leave anyways lol. Either way works, but not minimum wage either, they're academics with experience.

Jon, as a department head and a manager with more responsibilities, is certainly being paid more

[–]Loimographia 1 point2 points  (0 children)

As someone who works in the archives/special collections field, the roles are hilariously underpaid even for roles that typically require a masters like “archivist” and lower roles are even worse. I work in the US and my impression of pay in the UK is even lower on average. Indeed suggests average archivist pay is ~£34k in London..

[–][deleted]  (1 child)

[removed]

    [–]Spooki_ForestThe Stranger 1 point2 points  (0 children)

    I feel like Martin would be paid poorly. Jon (the author) just wouldn’t give Martin a silver lining like that.

    Martin was in for the horrors. He could be an unpaid intern if it’s legal

    [–]Creative_Onion8363The Eye 2 points3 points  (0 children)

    I think he pays them above minimum wage but not well bc of "lack of funding", gives them a whole spiel about it

    [–]CreatureOfLegend 0 points1 point  (0 children)

    Elias doesn’t seem like the stingy type

    [–]sad_and_stupidThe Extinction 0 points1 point  (0 children)

    definitely at least the median salary imo

    [–]Traditional_Gur_8446 0 points1 point  (0 children)

    If UK archival workers are paid anything like they are in the US, its NOT great

    [–]SerFlounce-A-Lot 0 points1 point  (0 children)

    My guess is much higher than the minimum wage, much less than they deserve.

    [–]WesteriaPeacockThe Lonely 0 points1 point  (0 children)

    Sasha makes the comment that the archives doesn’t pay well and also complains about the location of the institute if I’m remembering correctly. I’d say Elias probably pays them JUST enough so that they don’t quit. Not enough to thrive but enough to stay alive.

    [–]ProserpinaMaia 0 points1 point  (0 children)

    Whatever they are paid, high or low, they certainly aren't paid enough for all the stuff they were put through. Surviving anything connected to Jane Prentiss, they should have gotten a pretty hefty Christmas bonus.

    [–]WordleFan88 0 points1 point  (0 children)

    Everyone Is well paid except for Martin...because he's Martin.