I've been following this thread from afar, as I've been on a month-long road trip of around 20-25 different zoos and aquariums in California and Arizona. However, I have some information that might be of interest to those reading this thread. At Reid Park Zoo in Arizona there was recently a keeper position advertised, with a starting wage of $28,000...which is not a lot of money but enough for a single individual to live within their means. Anyway, approximately 150 people applied for that one job and around 50 of the applicants had university degrees. I was told by a keeper at the zoo that everyone without a degree was eliminated immediately and then the 50 with degrees were being whittled down to the lucky individual who would be hired at the low wages to be a keeper. The zoo is one that is fairly small and only has around 500 animals, which is small by American zoo standards. Supply and demand kill the idea of high wages, and almost all keepers at major American zoos have 4-year university degrees. I have met many keepers and volunteers over the years and from the information that I have gathered I would guess that 98% of all keepers at all the major American zoos have university degrees and lots of volunteer experience as well. The only ones who would not be qualified in terms of education would be those that have been at the zoo for 20 years or more and were hired at a time when degrees were not mandatory in relation to employment. I'm sure that many smaller zoos have staff that might not necessarily have gone to university, but I bet that if you took a poll of the most famous 75 zoos in America then easily over 90% of the keepers would have attended a college or university and all of them would have put in many years of volunteer work either at a zoo, farm or veterinary clinic. The competition is fierce and many keepers begin their careers for low wages with huge debts due to tuition, but even though they struggle to pay their bills they are working in a career that they love.
28k? Jeeze. I am sure that there are a lot of readers who are saying "but I make that in X weeks/months!" I have not managed to suss an actual figure for keepers in Australia from this thread, but I suspect that it might be a similar wage. I wonder if there is any other profession where you can pay an extremely low salary and still be assured that the employee will love his/her job and give 115%?
That's not a bad salary at all! That's like what.... US$100k at the current exchange rate, and about NZ$200k? I saw on a UK doco called "The Zoo" where a highly paid stock market, Wall Street type traded it in to be a gorilla keeper at London Zoo. I wonder if I have a chance at Rockhampton, or my application will end up in the dud-pile as described by snowleopard?
Continuing in similar vein! Under the Australian AMUSEMENT, EVENTS AND RECREATION AWARD 2010, a permanent adult keeper's introductory level hourly rate is $14.31. Upon attainment of prescribed further levels of skill, that increases in stages up to Grade 9 which is currently remunerated at the rate of $21.49 per hour. Casual rates are 25% higher than these rates. There are some minor extras available too, such as uniform allowances and the like. For juniors > 17 the rate is 55% of the adult rate, 17 - 18 is 65%, 18 - 19 is 75%, 19 - 20 is 85% and the adult rate kicks in at 20 years.
was that minimum wage then? According to this article, minimum wage in Australia has recently been raised to $15.51 per hour: Australia raises minimum wage - world - business | Stuff.co.nz
flabbergasted... "They are, first and foremost, carers. Often that care is given with a shovel, hose and broom. In some other occupations they would be classified as labourers." Just a tad bit horrified that a anyone with actual insight into the daily workings of a zoo keeper could simplify all their knowledge, attention and hard work down to a menial discription of a labourer...
Well, that's the way it is - especially at entry level. Obviously there are prescribed levels of skill that can be attained by the entry level keeper that can move them beyond that status.
