QUESTION: How much do you get paid? ANSWER from Curt Laughlin on May 11: The civil service (government) people associated with the KAO Project cover a wide range of skills, duties and responsibilities. Their annual salaries are in the wide range from about $25,000 to about $80,000. There are a lot of contracted personnel that work with the Project also and their salaries are in that same general range. Many of the astronomers work for universities and their pay is determined by the individual institutions.