Like a lot of people in the creative industries, I feel underpaid. Unless you are fairly senior or have built an impressive range of clients for your freelance portfolio, I would almost bet that most of you think you’re worth more than you currently earn. On the flip side, I know of GPs who are actually embarrassed by how much they make. And in that other world which we hatefully refer to as banking, one person I know was disappointed by a measly 30k bonus. The reality is that the creative industries do not, broadly speaking, reward us creative types terribly well.
Part of the problem is that certain companies know that people are falling over backwards to try and get their foot in the door. So for instance, a sub-£20,000 salary is pretty common at the BBC – the Mecca of those wanting to make their way in the broadcasting industry. An intern for a major record label like Universal would be expected to be jolly well grateful for 14k. In fact, many would be quite happy not to be paid at all, content with the honour of getting their foot in the door of such a prestigious place of work, with the promise of reaching 20k after a couple of years. This is, by the way, after filling in a colossal application form which might take all day and then an interview in front of four people.
One night, I hopped onto the tube and picked up one of the discarded copies of Metro which was left on the seat next to me. I never pay any attention to the jobs page in the Metro, but this one caught my eye. It was a pretty big ad, by usual standards; took up about a quarter of a page:
House of Commons – Department of Facilities (oooh, sounds important. There’s the royal portcullis emblem and everything. Now, let’s see what the job is…)
Lift Attendant.
And the salary? £17,277 + excellent benefits.
I can hear interns up and down the country who slog their guts out on a daily basis wailing in disbelief. But hang on, let’s not get ahead of ourselves; surely there’s more to it than that. Let’s read on:
“Experience of operating a passenger lift in a working environment.” No, nothing too taxing so far. Ah, here we are, maybe this is the challenge coming up:
“Experience of working in a large building operating a passenger lift.” Aha, so it’s not enough to have experience of operating a passenger lift in a working environment; it has to have been a LARGE building. Well, yes, I mean, come on. Any fool can operate a lift over three floors. But four or more? That takes real skill, imagination and years of training.
“To be smart and articulate.” Smart – yes, I can see that. Articulate? I can’t quite see Gordon Brown asking a lift attendant for his views on tax credits or, indeed, any aspect of the recent Prime Ministerial Debates. “Which floor, sir?” would, in my estimation, be the most crucial three words needed for such a role.
Is there a catch? Ah, I know – the benefits must be non-existent! Dream on…
“28 days annual leave, increasing to FORTY with continuous service (presumably one is allowed time off occasionally to go for a wee), interest-free season ticket loan, child care voucher scheme, discounted membership of the in-house gym and wide variety of catering outlets.”
So all in all, a pretty cushy little number. Look, I’m not putting down lift attendants. Somebody needs to do it and good luck to the person who gets the job. But I reckon I could ask any one of the roughly 63,000 members of Creativepool what their salary is and what they have to do for it, and a large proportion would, by comparison, be working themselves into an early grave for less money than is given to someone to press a button on a wall every few minutes. Going down, anybody…?
by Ashley Morrison
Ashley is a blogger, copywriter and editor. (He is also looking for a job earning considerably more than £17,277 but fully expects to have to do a bit of work in return. Email me…)
Quite right Ashley. The creative industries are underpaid – compare the skill levels of a typical plumber and say a graphic designer.
Both are specialists, but the designer has to understand a clients business and market, interpret a brief, respond in a variety of different ways, create something unique, and often work within a punishing deadline.
Not so the plumber. Yet his cost of £50 an hour is considered appropriate whilst the designers fee of £50 an hour is often regarded as being expensive.
It annoys me. What do others think?
What are you waiting for Ashley? Just think of the topics you could write about from snippets heard in that environment….
Very, very true Ashley!
However, there is also another way to look at this… A job in the creative industries should be alot more rewarding than alot of other jobs out there. There is also the fact that real designers and creatives work in this industry because they love it and are close to unemployable outside of this world.
A worse industry is sport and entertainment sectors. In both of these you are lucky to get paid for any of the work you do when you are starting and in both these examples only a very small percentage of them get to take on either of those roles without supplementing it from other sources.
Yes, Mazza, this could be the journalistic muse I’m looking for! I can see it now: Confessions of a Lift Attendant!
I do agree, Michael, that being in the creative industries as a whole tends to be more vocational, but it’s frustrating that this seems to correlate to lower pay for that very reason. Look at the sheer range of talent which appeared when Creativepool ran the design poster competition to celebrate 60,000 members. I was bowled over by the amazing imagination behind some of those designs. And yet these very same people would be expected to prove their worth for free in a role “to show they want it badly enough”. This is simply wrong, in my opinion.
As a music composer, I expect to have to pitch for work, but I’m now a bit old to expect to have to compose for peanuts or, heaven forbid, for free. As a result, in the end, I turned to writing to supplement my income…and then became a blogger…
As Joyce said, a plumber can charge £50 an hour (and in my recent experience, that’d be a bargain). And why? Because you need a plumber RIGHT NOW or your house will flood/your heating won’t work/your toilet won’t flush. But let’s face it, you never hear the words “plumber” and “talented” in the same sentence. “Plumber” and “creative” maybe…as in, creative with his invoice!
Lift Operator – someone has to do it, you say? They don’t really though, do they? Most of the lifts in which I travel move upwards or downwards on the push of a button. They’ve never tapped me for 17 grand either.