Salaries

[gareth]

A thought struck me this week while leafing through the job ads in The Stage - how exactly do some southern / home counties venues expect to attract good-quality applicants to vacant posts when some of them are offering salaries which are pitifully low?

 

Take two jobs advertised this week as examples. Sheffield Theatres are looking for an assistant electrician - a 'bottom rung' post (although one for which, given the nature of the venue, I expect they'd be looking for someone with a bit of experience and not a complete newbie). They're offering a salary of about £17.5k plus overtime and get-outs for this - not too shabby, a few decent get-outs and tech weeks would probably push it to the right side of £20k.

 

On the other hand, the Stag in Sevenoaks are looking for a Head Technician. They want someone with experience across the whole range of technical theatre skills, who will have managerial responsibility for other staff members, and is expected to look after the fabric and infrastructure of the building (and act as a keyholder) as well as running the technical elements of performances. The salary on offer is £18k, and there's no mention of any overtime or other enhancements.

 

A very quick bit of internet research suggests that the cost of living in Sheffield is about 40% cheaper than in the Sevenoaks area. So in real terms, a technical theatre management job in Kent is paying way less than an (almost) entry-level job in South Yorkshire. How the hell do they ever manage to persuade anyone to work there on those terms?!

[J Pearce]

This may well be why there is an apparent skills gap in the industry despite training and education being on a level it has never been before. Tech theatre training has lots of transferable skills that open doors into industries where the pay allows one to house and feed oneself, and even enjoy a few luxuries that even technical managing a reasonable size venue in an affluent area could not afford. Job security is hardly high in the theatre world at present either.

 

Thus, many graduates find they are better off outside the industry and keep it as a hobby or as part time casual work.

[gibbothegreat]

I was very struck sometime over a year ago by an advert on here by a commercial events company based in the north of England. They had a long list of responsibilities they expected from the candidate, probably near a complete A4 page had it been printed, including being in charge on sites and being the client liaison - but when I looked at the hours and the wage, it worked out to be exactly minimum wage.

 

The only reason I wouldn't want to indulge my curiosity and find out how well that worked out is because I think I'm better off having no contact with that sort of company, ever...

[Bryson]

Funny you should mention this - I was looking at the same two ads recently and thought much the same thing. Further to that, though, even with the terrible exchange rate right now, I can't see any theatre jobs in the UK that even get close to what they pay over here for comparable positions*. I'm feeling like I made a smart choice...

 

 

 

 

 

 

*=Admittedly, the cost of living here in Vancouver is really stupid, but that's another issue. House? $1 Million please.

[GaryNattrass]

If anyone is on £18k in London they have no chance of living as a room will cost you upwards of £500 a month and a flat £1600+ bills.

 

Seems the recession and housing plunge didn't really affect London or the South East and I have always suspected that the low interest rates were there to prevent a huge crash in that area.

 

The two bed terrace I sold in Hampton just over ten years ago for £175k would now cost me £650K

[GaryNattrass]

P.S just as a side note I start a new job down south tomorrow and it is for around the same salary that I had when I left Talkback Thames over ten years ago.

 

The freelance rates are just about the same too but we have to pay our own travel and accommodation these days so in real terms we are on less.

 

No TV or media work to talk of north of Manchester so at 54 I have had to get on my bike again and trundle down the M1 ! http://www.blue-room.org.uk/public/style_emoticons/default/sad.gif

[Just Some Bloke]

Indeed. But that Sevenoaks job is particularly badly paid. I know of one person who used to do that job (then called Technical Manager) and then moved into a job as Assistant Technician (under a Senior Technician, under a Technical Manager)at another venue which was better paid. They have been looking for a good candidate for about a year, I believe, with no success. Can't imagine why.

[gareth]

that Sevenoaks job is particularly badly paid.

 

Indeed it is. But I see many other adverts for jobs (some of them at a relatively senior level) in the most expensive areas of the country which don't pay much better.

[alistermorton]

Isn't the Stag a sort of hybrid community/commercial arrangement?

[Just Some Bloke]

It is, yes. Nevertheless, if they want to get a good person in the job then they will have to pay them the going rate.

 

As someone who has been looking for a job in the North recently, I can confirm that there are loads of jobs available in the South East where people seem to move more often, but there are a lot fewer advertised in the North, where people seem happy with their lot and don't move so much.