The AAA (American Anthropological Association) is the "central society" of professional anthropologists in the United States. My membership in the AAA is up for renewal. I've got a lot going on right now, but I'm going to take a few minutes to discuss the AAA's "income-based" dues structure: it is regressive and (I'm guessing) probably doesn't need to be.
The annual dues increase with income. If you make $20,000/year, you pay $60 (0.30% of your income). If you make $120,000/year, you pay $265 (0.22% of your income). If you make more money, your actual dues go up but your rate goes down. That's a regressive payment structure.
According to some statistics I found (U.S. Bureau of Labor), most anthropology professors have an annual salary between about $42,000 and $132,000, with a mean of around $80,000. Those $42k, $80k, and $132k levels are marked with vertical lines on the graph above. I'm presuming that range is where most of the AAA's dues payments are coming from.
The annual dues increase with income. If you make $20,000/year, you pay $60 (0.30% of your income). If you make $120,000/year, you pay $265 (0.22% of your income). If you make more money, your actual dues go up but your rate goes down. That's a regressive payment structure.
According to some statistics I found (U.S. Bureau of Labor), most anthropology professors have an annual salary between about $42,000 and $132,000, with a mean of around $80,000. Those $42k, $80k, and $132k levels are marked with vertical lines on the graph above. I'm presuming that range is where most of the AAA's dues payments are coming from.
If the AAA imposed a flat annual dues rate of about 0.25%, individuals making less than the mean of $80k would pay lower dues than they are now, and their friends making more would pay more (both would be paying the same proportion of their incomes). The bottom portion of the chart to the right shows the difference: an individual (let's imagine he or she is a junior scholar) making $50k/year would pay about $50 less ($125 instead of $174), while an individual making twice that would pay about $15 more.
I don't have any information on the distribution of salaries in collegiate anthropology or the AAA's annual budgeting needs, and I'm not accountant, so I can't demonstrate that this sort of proportional dues system would work as far as revenue. If it didn't work out that it would produce enough cash, however, the flat rate could just be incremented upwards until it did.
I know from personal experience that expenses associated with professional memberships impose a financial burden that can be difficult for those of us in the early stages of our careers (and/or without institutional support for conference travel, etc.) to absorb. Lowering the rates for the those least able to afford them would be a helpful thing to do, and it would probably increase the AAA membership. I joined last year because I had to interview at the meetings in Chicago. I'm considering not renewing my membership this year simply because of the expense.
I don't have any information on the distribution of salaries in collegiate anthropology or the AAA's annual budgeting needs, and I'm not accountant, so I can't demonstrate that this sort of proportional dues system would work as far as revenue. If it didn't work out that it would produce enough cash, however, the flat rate could just be incremented upwards until it did.
I know from personal experience that expenses associated with professional memberships impose a financial burden that can be difficult for those of us in the early stages of our careers (and/or without institutional support for conference travel, etc.) to absorb. Lowering the rates for the those least able to afford them would be a helpful thing to do, and it would probably increase the AAA membership. I joined last year because I had to interview at the meetings in Chicago. I'm considering not renewing my membership this year simply because of the expense.
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