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Above, the work of a member who failed to take the 2009 Wage Survey with the seriousness and gravity it deserved. But points for originality ...
I've finished the tallying of our annual Wage Survey. Version 1.0* of the full survey can be found here as a PDF file.
This year we had a 25.4% response (740 tallied out of 2,914 sent, not counting blanks and hand turkeys), a lower response than last year's 27.1%.
The survey calculates median averages (which can be found by arranging all the salaries from lowest value to highest value and picking the middle one), and compares them with the 2008 medians. Bear in mind that the weekly salary numbers are adjusted to a forty-hour week, to avoid apples-and-oranges salary comparisons. So, for example, a member who reported a salary of $2,400 on a fifty-hour week was tallied for $1,745.45 for a forty-hour week.
Here are some samples:
30-minute scripts, per script/outline
CBA journey minimum: $6,766.67 (script and outline)
Survey minimum: $6,500.00
Median: $7,000.00
Maximum: $7,000.00
2008 Median: $6,500.00
Change: +$500.00
TV directors
CBA journey minimum: $1,793.84
Survey minimum: $1,600.00
Median: $2,500.00
Maximum: $3,800.00
2008 Median: $2,400.00
Change: +$100.00
Production Boards (TV storyboards, per 40-hour week)
CBA journey minimum: $1,764.84
Survey minimum: $857.14
Median: $1,800.00
Maximum: $3,000.00
2008 Median: $1,900.00
Change: –$100.00
Half-hour production boards, per board
CBA journey minimum: $2,662.94
Survey minimum: $9,000.00
Median: $15,000.00
Maximum: $18,000.00
2008 Median: $15,000.00
Change: 0
VisDev
CBA journey minimum: $1.534.64
Survey minimum: $1,000.00
Median: $1,818.18
Maximum: $3,000.00
2008 Median: $2,125.00
Change: –$306.82
Tech Directors (Generalists)
CBA journey minimum: $1.534.64
Survey minimum: $807.27
Median: $1,790.00
Maximum: $2,600.00
2008 Median: $1,884.67
Change: –$94.67
Cloth/Hair TDs
CBA journey minimum: $1.534.64
Survey minimum: $1,600.00
Median: $2,000.00
Maximum: $2,820.00
2008 Median: $1,760.73
Change: +$239.27
3D Animators
CBA journey minimum: $1.534.64
Survey minimum: $948.44
Median: $1,700.00
Maximum: $3,700.00
2008 Median: $1,745.45
Change: –$45.45
* I'll be double-checking my numbers and counts over the next few days. The final version, which might include a few adjustments, will appear in the May Peg-Board.
We're seeing more and more respondents reporting salaries and per-unit fees from Guild shops at less than the CBA minimums. This could be dues to several factors:
- Some may have misunderstood the question about the length of the work week (40 vs. 45 or 50 or 56);
- Some may not have reported that they're working as assistants, apprentices, first-six-months or trainees;
- Unfortunately, many people may simply be working at less than union scale at union shops. For example, the industry standard for half-hour TV script/outlines hovered at $6,500 for years. This year the median kicked up to $7,000, but there were still reports of people making $6,500 ... which is below the union minimum of $6,766.67.
We're always pleased to file grievances over contract violations. We've filed them in the past and won them in the past. So let us know if you have a problem with being paid below contract scale.
-- Steve Hulett
Posts
19 comments:
Why is it is so easy for studios to walk all over animators? The picture above is a wonderful example.
They see us as children who would be willing to work for Fruit Roll-Ups, while we draw our little picture for them, instead of of adults making a career for ourselves. I'm not saying we shouldn't still have that little kid inside of us, because we need him/her for what we do, but don't let them know that. For gods sake take somethings seriously.
People like this make me want to get out of this industry real quick.
i recognize that drawing. i think that is brad bird's chicken.
god i love artists. brilliant!
I say that you go around from studio to studio and have everyone put their hand in it... like a modern-day Cinderella.
I think we're seeing why TAG gets the percentage of returned forms with information that it does.
Oh well. We march on.
I submitted my information once and someone who had access to the surveys told me he figured out what I made using process of elimination. I'll never fill one out again.
Say what?
No names appear on survey forms. Nobody sees surveys but office staff. So how somebody could come up to you and say "Heey. I've figured out what you made ..." is a mystery to me.
I mean, really. The process of elimination? A person said that to me, I'd give them a confused look and say: "Sorry, I don't make anything close to that. I never sent in a form ..."
How're they going to know any different?
Yes, I think someone's yanking your chain about "process of elimination". Unless there were only 2 surveys returned from that studio.
And who at the 839 office would have "access" that anyone would CARE about? There are people who DO see your paycheck, you know. Like the accountants on your production and all the people associated with payroll and the producers who determine the budgets on their films/TV shows.
In the end, who really cares what you make? What ramifications would that have? Is it that old fashioned pride thing-the thing that made a person's father turn purple if his kid asks daddy how much money he makes? I don't get it.
"In the end, who really cares what you make? What ramifications would that have? Is it that old fashioned pride thing-the thing that made a person's father turn purple if his kid asks daddy how much money he makes? I don't get it."No. You definitely don't get it. I don't think any effort on this planet can help you either.
Bottom line is, the staff at TAG have no way of knowing who sent in what, and no one but the staff see the surveys. And the information is not broken down by studio when it's released. What that 'someone' claimed happened could not have happened. It's that kind of paranoia that keeps the survey from being as useful as it could be.
My guess?
A management troll posted that. Wouldn't be the first time.
I don't care what the architect or anyone else says, I'm getting the hand turkey framed and I'm hanging it up in my new office.
And I'll ask the guy who drew it to sign it for me.
;)
Oh yeah, be careful here fellow artists. If we actually took this seriously, discussed your wages with one another, understood the union is your advocate rather than your adversary, you just might just make better deals at negotiation time. I'll never understand why this survey isn't well into the eighty percentile or above in returns. Nobody would buy a car without researching the invoices, destination fees, taxes, licensing, and cost to insure before buying. All that information is available on line. The only way we get this kind of information for wage negotiations is from each other. So blow it off, throw it out, or draw turkeys on it. Way to take a stand against yourself. That's Genius.
I don't understand...I'm a management troll? WTF? I'm the person who posted the above "I don't get it"-and please, I'd appreciate it if you explained why it's so deathly important not to tell THE UNION what the studio is paying you.
No, I wouldn't trumpet to all my coworkers what I make. I WOULD confide in someone who themselves wanted some idea of where they are on the pay scale on my crew or at my studio, though. Management would HATE me for doing it, too.
At the very least there's no shame, risk or anything else in anonymously reporting to the union about it. Jeez.
why does the survey have to be in actual paper? why not some anonymous online thing? wouldn't that increase the response rate?
To Mr. "I don't get it"-
Ok, you're not a management troll. Sorry. But here's the thing--apparently, you imagine that the survey is for the benefit of the STAFF of the union. When you say you don't want the UNION to know, but you would tell a fellow animator, you apparently don't see that you're talking about the exact same person.
You're not "trumpeting" what you make. You'd be helping that coleague figure out where he's at in the payscale. The distinction you make is that, with one, you can put a face on him. The other has a thousand unknown faces, but each is just as valid. We ALL benefit from having that cumulative knowledge.
It's not about the staff or front office of the union. It's about all of us artists who really would like to know where we stand in the payscale. It only helps everybody, and I don't see how it hurts anybody (except management).
I WOULD confide in someone who themselves wanted some idea of where they are on the pay scale on my crew or at my studio, though. Management would HATE me for doing it, too. ...
Management, under law, can't do anything about employees who choose to share wage information.
It's a protected right.
They do however, often "ask" that employees don't share wage information. (The old, "chilling effect" gambit.)
My suggested strategy: Acknowledge their request, then do what you want. Since it's none of their business.
I think the poster being accused of being a management troll is the 5th poster (at 2:15 pm), not the "I don't get it" poster who came later. Hope that clears things up among the anonomi.
Three followup points:
1. I just corrected a typo from the original post: the maximum reported salary for TV directors was $3,800. (This figure is correct on the PDF.)
2. It's worth noting that although the percentage returned is less than it was last year, we actually received more surveys for tallying this year:
2009: 25.4% return (740 returned out of 2,914 mailed)
2008: 27.1% return (670 returned out of 2,472 mailed)
3. In 2007 we posted a PDF copy of the survey on the website, and publicized its availability here and in the Peg-Board.
We got two returns.
I'm not opposed to trying it again next year -- in fact, take this as a promise that I will have a form available online, most likely watermarked to differentiate it from the mailed form. (I will also, as I have in the past, mail replacement forms to members who say they lost or didn't get them in the mail.)
If as a result I get a lot more non-union-shop data, I'll tally and publish those numbers separately alongside the union-shop figures. I'll also keep an eye open for the possibility that trolls and goobers will try to use the online form to send in phony data and cook the numbers (which would be pretty easy to do given the low response).
I'm going to keep an open mind; given the response to the mailed survey I don't have that much to lose. But I won't hold my breath that putting the form online is going to be any different than in '07.
I love that freaking turkey drawing I think its awesome!!! I think the post is dead on with giving the artists points for originality.
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