The aim of this page is to provide artists with links to resources about payments to artists covering:
  • research and survey data
  • current rates of pay
  • good practice in paying artists
  • ​how much you pay yourself!

This is a developing section.
​You are invited to contribute links to any additional resources you are aware of - anywhere in the world. PLEASE complete the form at the bottom.
This section covers:
  • Paying Artists in the UK - a range of references to good practice guidelines and rates of pay
  • Exhibition Payments in the UK and Ireland - referencing developments in recent times to improve payments to artists
  • Paying Artists in North America (under development) 
  • Working in Art Galleries and Museums (under development)

How much do you pay yourself - as an artist?
​

This is a formula for working out how much NET PAY you generate for every painting you sell.  It's linked to How to Price your Art.
REFERENCE:

How to work out your average annual income and net pay per painting
​

Calculate 
​INCOME net of sales costs
Identify the following:
  • start with your set price (or price per square inch multiplied by your most frequent size of image sold)
  • deduct commission or sales fee (at whatever percentage applies - if applicable. Zero if you are selling direct)
  • deduct any specific cost of sales items which are unrelated to price or size (eg advertising; entry fees; cost of printing catalogues; transport/courier etc). You might want to share these across however many other artworks they cover - but be realistic about how many you actually expect to sell.
  • then deduct the cost of matting/framing
Calculate ​
INCOME net of variable costs
deduct the costs of making the artwork.
  • deduct the notional cost of raw materials. This isn't an exact science - you are allowed to use approximations! ;)
  • Another way of looking at this is you are about to find out how much money should be deducted from the sale to replace the materials you've just used up.
Calculate ​
GROSS INCOME before tax and deductions and tax allowances
This is the sum available for your wages and payment of your fixed costs of making art (eg studio, insurance)
  • Identify your total fixed costs related to art (eg studio space and costs of equipment; professional insurance; professional fees)
  • Next step - divide your fixed costs by the number of works you sell each year and deduct the proportionate share
Remember that in cash terms this is what drives the cashflow until such time as you get the benefit of the expenses you can set off against tax. It's a useful place to start when you need to think about how much working capital/cash buffer you need to have to be a full-time artist.
Add back
All ALLOWABLE EXPENSEs
These are expenses where:
  • you kept the receipt for an item of expenditure related to your art business
  • which you are allowed to
    • ​​claim as a tax allowance or is
    • allowed as an expense to reduce your tax bill.
This is where paying attention or getting help with what's allowed and what's not allowed can be very helpful.
GROSS HOURLY INCOME before tax and deductions
Dividing this figure by the number of hours you work on your art (creating and all other related jobs) generates your gross hourly wage for that artwork.
NET INCOME
​which you get to to spend!
Now we need to work out much net income you 'take home'
  • calculate and deduct how much of a pension fund contribution you need to be contributing from each sale - because you are planning on having an old age when you just paint for pleasure!
  • then deduct tax at the variable percentage rate. (You may well have a tax allowance but let's assume for the purposes of this exercise that this basic sum is generated by other income which absorbs that allowance.)
  • divide that sum by the number of hours it took you to produce the painting - and you have your net hourly wage for that artwork.​
Frightening isn't it? Try also reading The art income shock by Robert Genn.

Do remember
  • to keep all you receipts and to claim all expenses allowed by your tax system.
  • every country's tax system is unique and what applies in one place might not count in another.
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Paying Artists in the UK
​

We are committed to making sure those who work in arts and culture are properly and fairly paid.
Arts Council England
The main organisations in the UK which have taken the lead on the topic of paying artists are:
  • a-n The Artists Information Company
  • Artists Union England.
  • Arts Council England

Issues which have been addressed recently are:
  • identifying what artists are being paid
  • developing fair rates of pay for different services provided by artists
  • developing models of good practice for paying artists - particularly in relation to exhibition payments
The personal stories tell of unpaid hours; unsustainable workloads; limited prospects for progression; poor pension provision; exploitation – and self-exploitation; undervalued qualifications; volunteers taking formerly paid positions; the need for financial support from family members; second jobs in other sectors; huge differentials between senior and junior staff; freelance rates that have been stagnant for a decade; and experienced and highly qualified workers leaving the sector altogether in order to be able to pay the rent.
Arts Pay 2018 - An ArtsProfessional Special Report
REFERENCE:
​
​a-n The Artists Information Company
  • Fees and Payments | a-n - listing of various articles on this topic
  • The Artists Fees Toolkit ​- a-n member only resource. Enables artists to calculate an individual daily rate for services they supply based upon their unique circumstances and overheads and to prepare quotes when pitching for freelance work.
  • Guidance on fees and day rates for visual artists Jan 20  | a-n - Sample day rates to guide arts budgeting and to help visual artists negotiate a fair rate of pay for short-term contracts such as commissions, residencies and community projects. If you want to access this information you need to join a-n. 
​Artists Union England
  • AUE Rates of Pay Guidelines (updated 29 June 2019) - hourly and sessional rates for different types of work online and also available as a downloadable PDF​. These cover rates of pay for new artists and for those with 3+ or 5+ years experience. AUE maintains these should apply to a wide range of freelance and short contract employment for artists, working within the field of visual art.
  • However a lot of artists are not aware of them....
These Typical Rates of Pay are provided for guidance purposes; artists are at all times free to negotiate rates of pay different to those set out above. Rates assume appropriate professional conduct by the artist themselves.
Arts Council England
The mean average total income for artists across the UK in 2015 was £16,500. Further, the average income derived from art practice in 2015 was £6,020. Income from art practice therefore represents 36% of total income. However, two-thirds of artists earned less than £5,000 from their art practice. 
​​Livelihoods of Visual Artists Report | Arts Council England
Arts Professional
  • Arts Pay 2018 - A summary of pay and earnings in the arts and cultural sector (note this is NOT limited to the Visual Arts - however it identifies that there are common issues relating to pay across the Arts)
Scottish Artists Union
Represents over 1200 visual artists, applied artists and makers
​
Some typical rates of pay which members may wish to use as a guide when negotiating payment for their work on short - term contracts, sessional work and residencies that are paid on a self-employed status basis.
Day rates are based on an 8-hour day, minimum ‘call’ is for a 4-hour session.
Rates of Pay should apply to a wide range of freelance and short contract employment from consultancy work, project planning and development, to all aspects of workshop delivery (set up, execution, clear up) and other freelance activity. Rates exclude artist’s expenses for a specific project and VAT where relevant.
Scottish Artists Union
In addition, there are various commercial websites which provide data on average SALARIES for different occupations - in different countries. Typically these relate to artists in employment ONLY (i.e. they do not include earnings for self-employed income). Applied art - involving CGI seems to pay better than graphic design and much better than fine art.

Here are a few examples

Exhibition Payments in the UK and Ireland
​

Paying Artists (the organisation)

.....is about payment for artists who exhibit in publicly-funded galleries

Paying Artists is an initiative established by the artist membership organisation a-n, and its advisory council, AIR, to help build a clearer relationship between artists and galleries and provide the basis for paying artists who exhibit in publicly funded spaces. 
  • The Paying Artists Campaign was launched in 2014 in response to the needs of a-n the Artists Information Company’s members to secure payment for artists who exhibit in publicly-funded galleries.
  • This was in response to a UK-wide Paying Artists Survey which identified that 71% of artists received no fee for exhibiting in public galleries.​
In 2018, a-n launched the Exhibition Payment Survey 2018, a new sector-wide survey to collect essential data and produce a benchmark for Exhibition Payment.
REFERENCE (Paying Artists publications)
Key findings in relation to exhibiting include:

– 71% of artists surveyed had not received any fee at all for exhibiting. Of those who were paid a fee, over a third received less than £200. Over half expressed dissatisfaction with their fee when set against their experience and status

– 63% of artists have turned down an offer to exhibit for reasons including unsuitability of venue, lack of fees, or non-payment of expenses

– 62% of artists have exhibited in a publicly-subsidised gallery in the last three years

– Only 16 of 134 publicly-funded UK galleries were cited by artists as providing exemplary support for exhibiting artists

– Less than half received production support (technical assistance, etc) from the gallery and less than a third got expenses, such as covering the cost of transporting their work to a gallery

Picture
Image from the "Paying Artists Survey: 71% receive no fee for exhibiting" article (June 2013) - click pic to go to article
​What is an exhibition payment?
​
Exhibition Payment is…
… a payment to artists which values their singular imagination and professional contribution to the success of publicly-funded exhibitions. It is a flexible, fair approach that upholds equality and diversity in the arts. It contributes to embedding best practice in arts organisations when working with artists, to sustaining artists’ careers and to ensuring audiences see art that represents the full spectrum of our human experience.

It is not…
…about paying artists to install the artworks to be exhibited, or a replacement for day rate fees normally paid to artists (for example as part of a commission, public talks, residencies, engaged or participatory arts practices, workshops, community projects or gallery education and learning programmes). It is not about covering basic programming or organisational costs that should be budgeted for by the organisation, or the purchase of art works or copyrights from the artist. Exhibition Payment is not about stopping artists working for nothing when they choose (and can afford) to do so, or imposing straitjackets on exhibition spaces.
​
  • Exhibition Payment: The a-n/AIR Paying Artists Guide For artists and exhibiting organisations (First Edition) - see below
Picture
Without the artist., there is only an empty exhibition space
Paying Artists in Ireland - Work and Exhibitions

  • Payment Guidelines for Professional Visual Artists - In October, November, and December 2012 Visual Artists Ireland undertook a survey to look at the reality of artists being paid for work and exhibitions. In total 147 artists who are actively exhibiting completed the survey. The survey took into consideration exhibitions and work in Ireland both in publicly funded not for profit spaces as well as the commercial sector.​
REFERENCE
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Paying Artists in North America
​

Prior to 2009, a study in Canada identified that the average visual artist
  • works 26 hours a week doing studio work,
  • supplemented by 14.5 hours on art-related jobs, and
  • 7.6 hours doing something not related to art.
for which they generate - on average:
  • some $20,000 a year (i.e. $7,000 below the national median) 

Some reasons this might be the case:
  • artists not putting in enough hours to create work which will sell
  • artists being a little too educated to focus on what sells and what doesn't
  • some of the artists being people who have retired, enjoy a pension and the time to do whatever they like in relation to art.
​It's not a good basis for creating robust numbers about artists' incomes.
​
REFERENCE:

  • The art income shock | Robert Genn​ - identified the average visual artists’ incomes in Canada 
​
CARFAC (Canadian Artists’ Representation/Le Front des artistes canadiens)
  • incorporated federally as a non-profit corporation that is the national voice of Canada’s professional visual artists. 
  • The CARFAC-RAAV Minimum Recommended Fee Schedule - widely recognized as the national standard for remuneration of visual and media artists in Canada. These payments include royalties for the exhibition and reproduction of an artist’s work, as well as various professional services fees.

WAGE (Working Artists and the Greater Economy)
  • a New York-based activist organization founded in 2008.
  • WAGENCY: a transactional platform providing working artists of varying means with the necessary collective agency to negotiate compensation or withhold content from the nonprofit institutions that contract our labor. ​​

Working in Art Galleries and Museums
​

Low pay is widely recognised as a major problem for the sector. Museum pay is falling behind that of comparable sectors, and is barely keeping up with the cost of living.
Museums Association
If you're an artist working in an art gallery or museum you are NOT being paid as an artist per se. You're being paid for the job of work you do. 

You may be anything from a receptionist at the front desk to a professional conservator. Pay is aligned to the knowledge and skills you bring and the expertise required of the individual doing the job of work.
Museums in the UK
Museums in North America
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