[SML] HS TD job

[Mick Alderson]

The bottom of that range is about what I was making when I retired in 2019
from the Univ of Wis system after thirty years. Salaries were low, but the
kicker was the included benefits. Those made it worth while. I was lucky.
For the first 9 years I was TD/designer at a 2 year UW Campus at 3/4 time.
I settled for the first offered salary, because I got full bennies for
health insurance. That was important because I had a wife and two kids to
take care of. The insurance was as important as the salary. I could
supplement my income by working with my IATSE Local. I had the security of
a year-to-year position instead of the gig-to-gig life my fellow IA members
lived. The steady salary meant I could get a mortgage on a fixer-upper that
needed a LOT of work. I put a lot of sweat-equity into that house, but
nothing my theatre training couldn't handle. It paid for the next house.

Then I was hired full-time at a four year UW campus (salary, no overtime)
for 21 years. I was the lowest paid person in the department, and retired
at 45k for salary (60 hour weeks and no overtime). BUT in the mean time I
had a gold-plated insurance for my kids, and I lucked into the only state
retirement system that was in the black (the Wisconsin Retirement System
cannot be raided by the governor because it is the only state retirement
separate from the stage government). AND I leveraged that fix-upper into
the home I live in now. It's an old farmhouse, older and it needed work,
but the mortgage was paid off before I retired. Between Social Security and
my state retirement, I'm living on about what I did when I retired, but
with fewer expenses.

Point is, don't just look at the immediate salary. Decide what is important
to you long term. I chose security and bennies over a gig to gig income
that may or may not have been more lucrative. I lucked out. I hope you can
do the same.

What concerns me is that when there were 32 theaters in the Univ of
Wisconsin system in 1986 we are down to maybe a half dozen. There are a lot
fewer positions or there than there use to be. I was in the right place at
the right time. Are you?

Mick Alderson
Stagehand
IATSE Local 470
Retired TD, UW Oshkosh Theater (that no longer exists)

Subject: Re: [SML] HS TD job
> Message-ID: <5C8E1988-C895-43E1-8695-8CD9FC3DC244 at dejazzd.com>
> Content-Type: text/plain; charset="utf-8"
>
> Many of the secretaries/admin assistants were not making the $45-70k range
> they are offering for this position.  After 25 years, my base was at the
> top of that range but I did receive OT on top of that.  Kind of hard to
> judge without researching cost of living in Hardin County.  My
> replacement?s base is below that range and that is about average for our
> area for a starting FT HS TD.  (South Central PA)
>
> Greg Bierly
>
> > On Dec 18, 2025, at 4:38 PM, Kristi R-C via Stagecraft <
> stagecraft at theatrical.net> wrote:
> >
> > Yeah - that salary is for clerical work. I?m seeing $75K-90K for HS
> technical theater folks who are FT.
> >
> > Kristi R-C
> >
>
>
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