Yeah, I'm fairly sure (though I should probably check out) that the Illinois High School Association covers insurance for officials. If there are any fellow ISHA-ers on the board, let me know, I'd rather not go pawing through the waist-high stack of paperwork I have, with the IHSA stuff buried somewhere in the middle.
On the question of local pay scales...for those of you who DO get paid, how much is it and what's the variance? 'round my parts, depending on which league you're doing, the pay can range from merely high to obscene (obscence is Lake Forest - I need to do more of those games) but for a rookie ump working a 2-man system, it's never less than $21 a game. For me, if you tack on longevity and state recognition, I make close to $40. This is part of my pitch to kids in the pre-season clinics - I tell them they could be wiping some crap off the ground in a McDonalds for something that's barely over minimum wage, or making $10 an hour umpiring.
Of course, thanks to the new labor enforcement of IDOL (Illinois Department of Labor, or simply 'Satan' to some youth leagues) we've seen interest in umpiring bottom out. The 13 year-olds now go to work someone else, since we only ask them to volunteer until they're eligible to get a work permit at age 14. It's made finding any umpires for a game, running across the board 1-man systems a royal pain.
[Edited by IHSAIllini on Jun 1st, 2003 at 09:10 PM]