UK Arts Workers Underpaid, but Satisfied

An organization called ArtsHub has conducted an arts jobs survey in the UK, and the results make clear just how difficult and unsustainable it is to work in the arts. The survey is based on the responses of only 448 participants, admittedly not a huge sample. But even with a limited pool of respondents, the trends are clear: arts workers are overeducated, underpaid, and have little to no job security.

To break that down: ArtsHub found that 90% of workers surveyed had an undergraduate or graduate degree, versus 27% of the larger UK population. Yet the two largest salary brackets — with 31% and 30% of respondents, respectively — were £20,000–29,999 (~$32,590–48,883) and £10,000–19,999. The runner-up to those was £0–9,999, the range in which 25% of respondents earn. Half of those surveyed said they didn’t expect their salaries to rise at all this year, as compared with last year, and a little less than half (43%) said they didn’t expect their salaries to rise next year either.