Capron Park Zoo Rich zookeepers?

[Arizona Docent]

If this article is correct, starting salary for a zookeeper at this zoo is $45 thousand a year. I guarantee that is well above starting pay at my zoo. Does anyone else find this unusually high?

Capron Needs Zoo Keeper to Keep Accreditation - Attleboro, MA Patch

 

[Jesszoo]

Well, that's only about $20 a hour, right? It's high, but not out of the ballpark. I have seen ads for a couple zoos starting at $18-20 a hour. Of course that is WAY higher than Phoenix pays their keepers...but it is a privately owned non-profit. I could see a city or state run zoo in a populous area being paid $20+/-

I know Brookfield was starting their Bird Keeper at $21/hr or so in a posting I saw a while back.

 

[gerenuk]

You misread the article. It doesn't say that zookeepers make $45,000 a year. It says that is costs the zoo $45,000 per keeper. For any business (whether its a zoo or not), the amount of money they spend on employees includes not only salary, but taxes, health care, HR & administration costs, and other benefits.

 

[lee456]

On a similar note when I worked at a zoo in the uk the annual salary was minmum wage, which equated to about £12-14,000 a year.

 

[Arizona Docent]

@ Gerenuk - very good point. Thanks for clarification.