Are You Paid the Right Amount for Your Work? Negotiating Pay & the Gender Pay Gap in Animation and VFX
Although I didn’t catch who said what, the following article details the ideas that were discussed by the panel put together by BECTU on the 30th Jan 2020.
Why is there a gender pay gap?
To clarify, a gender pay gap is found by calculating the mean value of female wages, and the mean value of male wages. The difference is the pay gap.
The first point made is that it has always been a very male dominated industry. So there may be a pay gap because women are still finding their way into it. In the 1990’s very few female students were studying animation, I can vouch for that as studying animation for the first time in 1991 I think there were only two women in the class. However now the numbers are equal, half the students are women. So its taken almost 30 years for the number of women studying animation to become equal.
Even though at entry level the numbers of women and men entering the industry are about equal now, further up the career ladder there are far less women. Maybe it is because its only in the last few years or so that more women have been entering the industry and therefore in the next 6 years we will see more women in higher positions as they will have progressed through the ranks, and then we will see less of a gender pay gap.
Or maybe there is another more disturbing reason. The point was made that after several years in the industry women don’t get to progress due to the lack of clear career paths, no clear progression from one role to another, unstructured workplaces with long hours and low pay. Toxic work environments, high levels of stress and anger causing women to leave and move into better work environments in other industries.
Women are often guided into production and support roles, and there is an unconscious bias towards people who have to pick up kids, even though they come back to work to make up the hours. To be honest in my opinion any industry that can not accommodate people with families is not future proof (that’s my personal opinion).
A story was told of an excellent DOP who was always asked “what will you do about childcare?”. Men are never asked this. This is undermining and being scared of rocking the boat she didn’t want to flag this up. But work was still less frequent and eventually she left the industry.
The panel was asked about how to progress one’s career with a family. Change roles was the first offer. There are also the possibility of job shares, but these need to be planned a few years in advance, in terms of finding the right person to job share with, getting into a role that can be job shared, and getting the buy in of the company. But not all companies will agree to it.
Women tend to undersell themselves when negotiating part time roles or job shares. It’s not specific to the animation industry that men are employed for their potential and women are employed for their experience. Women generally only apply for jobs that they can prove they have done, whereas men will apply for jobs that they think they can do.
Everyone needs to negotiate pay
It was suggested that women in animation need assertiveness training and need to learn to negotiate. But in a system with no rate cards it’s not just women that will need that. No-one seems to know what they ought to be paid and the panel urged animators to talk to each other about what they are paid so that they can renegotiate their pay rate with employers.
Companies can take advantage of workers by offering lower fees on big name projects, because they look good on the showreel and imdb, so more people will be competing for the work. Big name prestige studios can offer cut rate salaries because its good to have their name on your CV, so work there for a bit, but then move on. Its often seen as a labour-of-love job; many people fantasize about working in film, so companies don’t need to look after staff, and it becomes easy to take advantage of them.
But the advice was to walk away from a deal that you don’t like, be dispassionate, don’t be afraid of losing the job. This works best of course when we all stand together. The best way to do this of course is to join the union. Remember pay is about what you deserve, so be the best you can be.
As you progress through a company you need to be asking to negotiate your pay rise at least yearly. Most companies don’t do regular appraisals, some only if you ask for them. If your work has significantly improved, or changed in scope, or if your responsibility changes, you can renegotiate pay. Or renegotiate pay on a project by project basis. Your rate will change on a supply on demand basis too, so ask for a raise when there is a staff shortage. If you become aware of a large production taking up lots of crew in your specialist area you can negotiate higher rates as their will be fewer crew available to take your place.
There was repeated advice not to stay too long in one company. You will not get a good salary by doing that. Keep moving companies, so you can keep negotiating a new salary. Don’t be loyal to a company, because its all about money to them, you will be sacrificed if need be.
How to survive in the industry
Nepotism has always been a problem in the film industry and animation is no different. However it might be because crewing up happens quickly and at short notice so people hire who they know, or through friends and contacts they already have. The industry works completely on networking, who you know will dictate what work you get, so keep meeting your network whether you are working or not. Friends give friends work.
With work forces constantly shrinking and growing in response to the productions going on there are very few full time permanent positions. Over half the workforce are freelance. Don’t get isolated as a freelancer, keep your network alive. Keep talking with your network about money and the rates that are paid on various projects as it will help you to negotiate your pay. Freelancers are paid based on the project budget so you will need a good understanding of what others have been paid on similar projects in order to negotiate.
Even though your network is all important you still need to work on your showreel, which in work terms means choosing work that will give you a good reel. Be strategic about what you do. Although that doesn’t always mean only choosing cool looking projects; you need to make sure that you can get them on your reel too. In the games industry, for example, it has been known that people may work for 5 years on a game, only for it to be cancelled, which means you can’t put it on your reel, or sometimes even talk about it. That means nothing on your reel from the last 5 years.
The 2D work environment is very fragile, as this style tends to go in and out of fashion. It is unlikely that there will be regular work as it’s quite niche. 2D companies were described as sitting ducks as they are not in a good position to negotiate good budgets as they will all be competing for the same work. Students were advised to do CGI as its much more stable work.
How to deal with the companies you work for
Not all companies are going to be good to work for, there are many that will take advantage of people. The panel offered some tips on how to identify the ones that may be problematic.
Companies need to answer straight questions in the interview, if they are very evasive or change the subject when talking about money, responsibility or roles then this is a red flag. Beware of companies who avoid sending contracts, and always read the contract because they can be very unfair. If a contract is unreasonable then it is always possible for them to change it if you ask, if they won’t then walk away. Freelancers can be given a contract on their last day, and told they won’t be paid unless they sign, so make sure you are protected with a contract before you start. Remember if in doubt you can check companies out on your relevant Facebook group, others in your network will let you know if they have a reputation for being problematic, you can also look up the company profits online to make sure that they are viable companies.
The VFX companies have their budgets set by LA companies, they don’t always manage to negotiate a good deal for themselves and they often pass the consequences onto their employees and crew. Big clients often pay less because suppliers will compete to have that brand as one of their clients. Netflix and other streaming services have a very wide budget range, some budgets are very large and some very small. If a company uses the excuse that “Well we’re not getting that much from Netflix, so we can’t pay you much” it’s not your problem, its theirs, so walk away. Two thirds of the time you may have to walk away from a negotiation. Be firm and pleasant, and remember, it’s just business.
If you find a good company to work for, build relationships there. Get to know as many people there as possible and maintain good relationships with them. It will help with progression through the company.
Stronger united
There are rate cards for the rest of the industry, but not VFX and animation. That leaves workers vulnerable to wage erosion and manipulation. Many creatives find it hard to talk about money, so much so that even in this panel discussion with ‘negotiating pay’ in the title, not one single monetary figure was ever even mentioned once, and none of the animation creatives asked about figures!
BECTU might invest in making a rate card, but it would mean that every member would have to stick to the rates and would have to turn down work which is less than the rate card level. Obviously this leaves the position open to any non-union member who needs the work, or are entering the industry and need the experience. It will only work if everyone, or at least the vast majority, joins the union. The union will then have the power to protect its members and negotiate on their behalf.
Will animation and VFX crew stand together to get better pay and conditions?
What will you do?