“Only one in four Catalan artists earns more than 18,000 euros per year in income.” “63% of professionals in the sector in Catalonia are below the poverty line.” “49% of actors and dancers have to resort to a second job outside of the artistic job to survive.”
These are some of the shocking, and not at all encouraging, headlines that summarize the Aisge Foundation report that it has prepared based on surveys of professionals in the sector. And they continue: “The salary gap between men and women is abysmal: they earn 9,900 euros a year and they earn 15,100.” And unemployment stands at 13%, although artistic unemployment rises to 32%.
“Living off of art continues to be extraordinarily difficult today in Catalonia and Spain. If we add the threats that the future brings, with the emergence of artificial intelligence, we cannot be very optimistic,” declared the president of Aisge, Emilio Gutiérrez Caba. , at the presentation of the report in Barcelona.
Making a living from art continues to be a complicated mission. Only 25% of actors, actresses and other audiovisual artists residing in Catalonia exceed the minimum interprofessional salary by 2,000 euros (which is close to 16,000 euros). But 49% of the foundation’s members do not reach 6,000 euros per year.
However, this Catalan X-ray by Aisge “is a little more encouraging than that of the State as a whole: the artists who in Spain as a whole spend more than these 18,000 euros in income between January and December are only 16%, nine percentage points per below average in Catalonia”.
These data come from the Socio-labor Report of actors/actresses and dancers in Spain, an exhaustive analysis that the Aisge Foundation has prepared during 2023 from 3,410 surveys.
“We do not intend to alarm anyone or demand anything, but we do intend to offer a detailed and precise x-ray of the sector. Only in this way, with exhaustive knowledge of reality, will we be able to correctly diagnose and think of solutions,” said the president.
The study shows that 63% of Catalan professionals are below the poverty line (72% in the State as a whole). For this reason, many people who dedicate themselves to artistic activity are forced to have a plan B, outside of theater and dance. Catalan artists who resort to this second source of income are 49% of the total, a figure very similar to that of the Spanish count (52%). In three out of four cases, second jobs have nothing to do with the art or culture sector.
The gender gap continues to be a very pronounced problem. The Catalan women surveyed receive an annual average of 9,908 euros for their work as artists, while in the case of men this figure rises to 15,149 euros.
The problem comes not only from the negotiated salaries, but from the volume of work. Catalan artists work in the sector an average of 76 days a year, while their male colleagues increase this figure to 95 days.