Quote:
Originally posted by Tim Murphy:
I believe the salary of the Poet Lauriate is $30,000 per year, unchanged for forty years, insufficient even to rent an apartment in DC from which to operate.
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Boy, you can say that again!!! I don't know what the cost of living is in other places (except for Indiana, of course) but I'd have to bet that the DC metro area is one of the most expensive places in The United States in which to reside. I hear California is worse, but I'd have to see it to believe it. $30,000 a year here would qualify one for low-income housing. IF one could get on the waiting list.
Anyone who takes the Poet Laureate position needs to have another source of income - and a pretty good one at that - or he/she needs to commute from somewhere else a few times a year and let that pretty office space in The Library of Congress sit empty the rest of the time.
edited to add Ok, I looked it up again - the salary HAS been increased - from $30,000 a year to a whopping $35,000 a year - plus a $5,000 travel allowance. Big bucks now, guys, big bucks.
[This message has been edited by Laura Heidy-Halberstein (edited August 02, 2008).]