Money does help, I have found. Although keepers generally could be considered labourers, we have a range of hazards that go with the job, and are usually extremely short-staffed, which helps to lower the morale even further. If you are required to milk venomous snakes, scuba dive regularly and feed sharks, condition animals, give quality keeper talks, assess your charges behaviourally and physically, assist with collection management, keep up to date with the industry standards, etc etc, you are a little bit more than a labourer.
When younger you are more willing to accept the low wages that many facilities offer. We all enter this trade because we love animals. It is one of the few industries where people eagerly volunteer their time and effort for nothing!! As life changes and keepers want to start a family, buy a home, etc, they sometimes need to seriously reconsider their occupation. That is at least what I am regularly seeing. There is also limited chance of growth through the ranks in many of the privately-run or smaller facilities, so you are basically stuck where you are until you maybe get a job somewhere else (which is likely to be interstate or overseas and means moving).
Some places pay good wages, others don't. You don't really have the luxury to pick and choose (like with say the advertising or the banking industry) which one you will get due to the lack of jobs and competition. You take what you can if you are passionate enough, which most of us are at some time.
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