Thursday, July 16, 2015

Wages -- The Big Picture

Since we're on the topic of pay packets today, here's an overview of pay in today's U.S. of A. ...

... When asked why wage growth -- or lack thereof -- matters, Fed economist Joel Elvery notes that personal consumption accounts for roughly seventy percent of the country's Gross Domestic Product (GDP).

"When wages are flat, it limits the amount of expansion in personal consumption, so it stifles the growth of the economy," he says.

Indeed, GDP and wages have had slow growth in common in recent years. ...

At the link, you will note that Arts/Entertainment has gone up 1.8% over the recent past. This is not great (though in line with the entertainment 2%/2%/2% contract wage increases in the 2012-2015 period), and it looks to accelerate as new contract minimums are 3%.

But as for specific cartoon salary trends, things are muddier:

WAGE SURVEY MEDIAN RATES - 2013 ---> 2014

Staff Writers (TV): $2100 ---> $2000
Staff Writers (feature): $3,150 ---> $3090.91

Directors (feature): $3,3350 ---> $3,800
Directors (TV): $2,593.75 ---> $2,500
Timing Directors: $1,987.50 ---> $1,824.43

Production Board (TV): $1,962 ---> $2,000
Revisionists: $1,500 ---> $1,600

Previz Artists: $1,960 ---> $2,450
Final layout: $1,722 ---> $2,077.58
Background/Layout/Design: $1,800 ---> $1,909.40

3D Animators: $2,100 ---> $2,000
3D Modelers: $2,115 ---> $1,680

Labor unions through history have been one of the dependable vehicles for boosting wages. Right-To-Work states have, on average, lower wages to the tune of $1600. As labor unions have declined over time, so have wage increases.

No big surprise, really.

2 comments:

Unknown said...

Well, we have to pay for the bush economic debacle sooner or later. And, of course, the massive bush tax hike. Otherwise, we'd end up like Greece.

Steve Hulett said...

Here's an interesting factoid:

The United States has the lowest taxes as a percentage of GDP of any OECD country. (These are developed economies, in case anyone is wondering.)

SO what's the percentage under our Kenyan Socialist President? 24.4% And what was the tax rate under Ronald Reagan in the exact same point in his Presidency? After all the tax reductions, after "Morning in America", etc. etc. 25.6%.

https://stats.oecd.org/Index.aspx?DataSetCode=REV

Gives you pause, doesn't it? I mean, if you're a reality-based kind of person.

Site Meter