A report by the University of Glasgow has illuminated the declining condition and gender disparity among artists in the UK.
The “UK Visual Artists’ Earnings and Contracts Report 2024” was recently published by the University of Glasgow. Commissioned by the Design & Artists Copyright Society (DACS), the report was conducted by surveying over 1,200 artists in the United Kingdom. DACS is a private company dedicated to protecting the rights of artists.
The report primarily found that the average income of artists in the UK in 2024 is merely $15,600. This marks a stark decrease of 40% in their average income since 2010 when it was $25,000. The average salary of an artist in the UK today is also 47 percent lower than the median minimum wage household income of $29,980.
Other parts of the report painted an even darker picture. Female artists were earning more than 40 percent less than their male counterparts. Disabled artists, on average, were earning less than $5,000 in a year. About half of the artists said that art was their only, full-time occupation. The rest admitted to doing other jobs to support themselves. But even among artists doing multiple jobs, their average income still only came out at $22,000 – still significantly lower than the median minimum wage income of the country.
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The report ended with support for the recommendations made by art groups to the UK government in June this year. Christian Zimmermann (CEO, DACS) said: “The widespread low pay and precarity artists face today pushes talent out of the sector and limits the creativity of our artists. This report shows us in no uncertain terms that visual artists need greater support and protections to navigate the challenges of a changing world, whether that’s Generative AI scraping their work, income instability, or the rising costs of studio rents.”
