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A new report released by the University of Glasgow highlights the economic plight of artists in the UK and the pay disparities across demographics.
Titled the “UK Visual Artists’ Earnings and Contracts Report 2024,” it shows that the average income for artists in the UK is the equivalent of just $15,600, which marks an almost 40 percent decrease since 2010 (when it was $25,000). Female artists are earning 40 percent less than their male counterparts, while disabled artists are taking home less than $5,000 each year.
For comparison, today’s average income for UK artists is 47 percent lower than median incomes of full-time minimum wage earners in the country – $29,800.
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The report was commissioned by the privately-owned Design & Artists Copyright Society (DACS) and is based on a survey of 1,200 artists in the UK. DACs is dedicated to championing, protecting, and managing the rights of artists and maximizing their royalties.
Almost half of the respondents said their artistic practice was their only job, but the other half said they are forced to supplement their income with other work due to low pay. However, those artists who have more than one job are earning an average of around $22,000 a year, which is significantly below the UK’s minimum wage.
“Most visual artists are freelancers and despite being essential to the UK’s visual arts sector, they are among the lowest-earning workers in the creative industries,” Christian Zimmermann, the CEO of DACS, said in a statement. “Over 80 percent of all visual artists surveyed said that their sources of earnings are unstable, or very unstable. The widespread low pay and precarity artists face today pushes talent out of the sector and limits the creativity of our artists. This report shows us in no uncertain terms that visual artists need greater support and protections to navigate the challenges of a changing world, whether that’s Generative AI scraping their work, income instability, or the rising costs of studio rents.”
The report’s results support recommendations that DACS and 26 other arts groups made to the UK government back in June in “The Visual Arts Manifesto,” which calls for fairer pay and more support for artists.
Key short-term proposals include establishing the Smart Fund to generate collective licensing revenue and appointing a Freelancer Commissioner, two policies recommended by the Culture, Media and Sport Committee in April 2024. The manifesto also calls for robust AI regulation to ensure remuneration and control for all artists, as well as financial stability and security for disabled artists. Key short-term proposals include establishing the Smart Fund to generate collective licensing revenue and appointing a Freelancer Commissioner. These policies were recommended by the Culture, Media and Sport Committee, a cross-party group of MPs, earlier this year.
The manifesto also demands robust AI regulation to ensure remuneration and control for all artists, as well as financial stability and security for disabled artists.
“In recent months, AI has been at the forefront of concerns surrounding displacement of artistic labour,” said the report’s authors, Dr. Amy Thomas and Dr. Arthur Ehlinger from the University of Glasgow. “However, our survey shows that there are many other factors – new and ongoing – that impact how artists get paid. It’s clear that in the UK, the fallout of the Covid-19 pandemic, coupled with Brexit, have disproportionately negatively impacted artists’ earning potential. But we also see pervasive and systematic evidence of inequality – a large gender gap, and huge earnings disparity between disabled and non-disabled artists. These findings have troubling implications for the sustainability and diversity of artistic professions.”
