Pay differences between technical jobs

[Modge]

Whilst we're developing things I'm doing only the a minimal amount of freelancing to support my self (and get some extra alpha testing in!) until we have such things as "a product" which I believe is a prerequisite to selling things. As such I'm living proof that a single individual can support them selves to a standard that's perfectly acceptable (i.e. includes fun but not luxury cars etc) on really rather less than £350 a week. Granted I've lost touch with many of the guys I knew who got about £8k a year, but unless they've being getting a lot more than inflation in the time I've been out of touch they're still not on £10k a year and they were doing fine when last seen.

 

Anyway as to the pay of tech management posts, it's awful, when I was leaving uni I had a look at adverts for such things and where the salary was shown it was frankly a joke. To be honest I don't quite get why anyone does it. It seems that the all the pleasant (i.e. design and hands on in my mind) bits of the industry are kept away from you with all the unpleasantness (inevitably these posts have managers above them and meetings to go to) piled on thick.

 

Edit: made slightly less vitriolic on the subject of the unpleasantness of being a tech-manger. There's no need for it

[JDP]

Guys,

 

My statement was based around a FREELANCER. If your in full time employment, then yer you could live off £16800 per year. But if your freelance TURNING OVER that amount will not work. Reason being because after you have worked your socks off for the £16800 there will be the travel expenses, taxes yada yada yada your PROFIT is very little.

 

When someone earns £16800 in a full time position, it assumes that they are local to the place they are employed, and simply walk or take a short tube/car journey to work. As a freelancer, its VERY common (for me at least) to find myself driving all round the UK, to/from London, Leeds, Birmingham etc.. On some of those journeys its costing me £60 in petrol!! So working for £80 per day doesn't really add up. Essentially, thats the point I am making, as I see a LOT of jobs here for £80 - £100 per day with NO travel expenses paid.

 

Also, and be honest here, how many freelancers here work seven days a week? If you work for 30 days a month at £80 then fair enough, £2400 in your pocket. But realistically, unless its the really busy season, nobody works seven days a week, or if they do, certainly not 30 days a month. I am fairly lucky in that when on tour, I am paid a half day when on a day off or travel days, so when I do tour for several months I do get paid all days.

 

With regards to my attitudes, Poppadom, I work in conditions where we get sometimes 4 hours sleep per night. I put a rig in and out every day. Not specifically me, but the riggers deserve decent money. Because, if they screw up they can easily put tens of thousends of peoples lives in danger, and screwing up is a LOT easier than you think it would be with 4 hours sleep per night! With all due respect, I don't think its quite like that in theatre is it? All you have to do is turn up every day and use a rig already up, and sometimes change bulbs and gel.

 

Yer people do survive on £80 per day, but unlike freelancers, they have a job to go to every day. Freelancers work without knowing what there doing next month, or even next week in some cases. In this time of uncertainty, I think its a wise decision to 'rake it in', especially if you don't know the next time your working!!

[cedd]

And what qualifies somebody to get a higher rate of pay? A position of responsibility or harder work? The two don't always come hand in hand.

 

This is rife across lots of technical professions, not just theatre.

 

As an electronic engineer, my job involves a lot of desk work, with lab work and very occasional field work getting cold and wet. At the end of a day, I go home reasonably clean, I'm not half dead, I work in a shirt and tie and I take home a reasonable wage (or will do once I've been here a little longer).

 

My best friend is an electrician, working in an industrial setting. He has had technical training, and has studied for the same length of time as me. He spends his day crawling under floors, working at height, cutting himself, climbing over things and pulling heavy cables in. He goes home shattered and filthy.

 

Who has earnt their money more? Despite being the higher paid of the two of is, I'd say he has.

 

I know we're not going to change the way we pay people now, but I can think of many professions where the managers do far less "hard work" than their workers.

 

So, do we pay people within the theatre based on work done, training given, experience or responsibility?

[indyld]

There no doubt that "nobody ever made any money working for a living", but the in the OP Paul highlights the apparent lack of light at the end of the tunnel. More experience, more responsiblity = an extra few quid a week.

 

The actual pounds and pence, freelancer or not, are not what bothers me. It the lack of long term progress and financial reward with it.

 

JDP mentioned experience and gave an example of a common day rate. The thing that I don't like the thought of is that , with 20+ years of experience already behind me, I could still work for another 10 years but I wouldn't earn much more. If you worked every day of the year, there is still a limit to your earning capacity.

 

People who work in the business don't go into it because they were not clever enough to get a better paid job. Maybe the reason that "we" are sometimes unsatisfied is that we are smart enough to think about the possibilites of not living "hand to mouth". Hell, if I had 20 years experience in Investment Banking, I would have 3 helicopters by now.

 

Before TNG cry out "Enough with the moaning, I can't wait to be a pro technician - move over, grandad" let's not forget the important point that this thread throws up:

 

When you do start to care about "prospects" and "earning capability", you may wish that you had given it more thought earlier. Like when making that further education decision.

 

Sings - " Don't put your daughter on the stage, Mrs Worthington...."

[Jram]

It's awful, when I was leaving uni I had a look at adverts for such things and where the salary was shown it was frankly a joke. To be honest I don't quite get why anyone does it.

 

In a quite stunningly insulting move, the place where I did my degree course (no names, but it teaches Music and Drama, is in Scotland and is a Royal Academy*) emailed at least five years of alumni at the start of this year asking for volunteers to work on their opera "for experience."

 

Bad enough that a teaching establishment with such credentials as a Royal seal is perpetuating this unsavoury practice, but the opera in question went £100,000 over budget according to various press reports. Imagine how you'd feel if you worked for nothing and then discovered that they managed to overspend on EVERYTHING else by £100k!

 

I did raise this point (and a few others) with them, but a satisfactory answer was never forthcoming. In fact, it took them months just to send me an answer evading the issue.

 

 

 

* This is not libel, I can prove this with documentary evidence.