Artists fees

• The average income in the UK for a full-time worker is around £26,000 a year (2021). Excluding public holidays and weekends this is equal to around £100 a day.
• The UK minimum wage is £8.91 an hour (2021) for someone over the age of 23. This is works out as £62.37 for a 7 hour working day. The London Living Wage, which is voluntary, is £10.85 (2021). This works out as £75.95 a day.
• Different types of projects will pay different rates. Longer term projects often pay a lower daily fee becuase there are more days involved. Short term projects should have a higher daily fee.
• Employers with fewer resources are unlikely to be able to pay as much as bigger employers.
• Artists get paid less at the start of their careers. You are responsible for raising your fees as you gain more experience.
• Any project will need some time to make a plan. You should get paid for planning as well as delivering the project. This might mean a higher daily fee or getting paid for more days. Planning days are often paid at a lower rate than project delivery.
• All freelance workers have to do some development and administration work for themselves. This will not pay you at the time. When someone pays you a fee they are paying you for your experience and some of this development time.

When someone approaches you to work on a project, ask them for the total project budget. This is the best way to understand how much money is available for:

• Your fee
• Materials
• Marketing and promotion
• Technical help
• Other artist fees
• Costs associated with this particular project

If they will not share the budget with you, ask how much is available for artists fees instead. From this you can gain an idea of how many days you might work. For projects that include making art work, ask what the materials budget is too.

Projects that do not include separate artists fees and materials risk exploiting artists. If an organisation expects materials and other costs to come out of your fee if may not be a good opportunity.

Some organisations may have worked out a daily fee rate that they expect to pay. Ask if they have this and what it is. If it is lower than your daily fee then you can negotiate a new fee based on the difference. If the organisation will not negotiate, you need to consider if the project is worth doing. Be prepared to walk away from a project that does not pay you enough to live on.

To begin to work out your own daily fee rate you should make a personal budget. This will help you understand all the costs you need to pay. It will also help you decide if a project does not pay you enough, and if you need to refuse the work.

You are trying to work out how much money you need to support yourself. This is the least amount you need to earn to survive. On top of this least you can add an extra amount depending on your experience.

Include the following things in your budget:

• Rent and housing costs
• Studio costs
• Pension contributions
• Savings
• Any costs for childcare
• Travel costs
• Administration costs – for example an accountant, manager, PR or marketing services
• If you live in London include an extra amount to account for higher prices. This could be around 7-14% on top of your calculated fee. When you work outside of London you can use this margin to negotiate down your fee and still make what you need.
• Contingency (an extra amount to provide savings when you are not working)

Some employers may be able to cover some of your costs to make it easier for you to work with them. For example, Artquest has an access budget to pay some artists’ childcare or travel costs.

Once you have an idea for your daily fee you can work out fees for short and long projects. This assumes that you will not be working full time on a project. Most artists have art projects, jobs and other income. It is normal for artists to have more than one other job to support themselves.

Use these sums to work out your hourly, weekly or annual fee:

• Day fee ÷ 7 = hourly fee. Assumes a 7 hour day with unpaid lunch hour.
• Day fee x 5 = weekly fee. Assumes no weekend work.
• Day fee x 253 = annual fee. Assumes weekends (104 days) and public holidays (8 days) are not included.

Some artists do not charge by the hour. Consider at least a half-day / 3.5 hour rate. If you are traveling to and from work you cannot work on anything else and your fee should cover all your time.

As you gain more experience you should raise your fees. In any other career your salary would increase as you become more senior and get job promotion. A freelancer who has been working for 20 years should earn more more than someone at the start of their career.

Raising you fee takes confidence and courage. Since your costs are rising it makes sense to raise your fee too. It can be hard to calculate this extra amount because there is no regular career path for an artist.

You can argue for a higher fee by telling people about significant career moments such as:

• How long you have worked as an artist
• Your current fee and how long you have charged it
• Sales of your work, especially to public collections
• Books and catalogues about your work
• Taking part in selection panels
• Taking part in major group exhibitions
• Solo exhibitions in public galleries or museums
• UK and international residencies
• The partners and organisations you work with
• Press and publicity about your work
• Awards and prizes you have won
• The recognised quality of your work

The more significant these career moment, the more you can increase your fee.

If you regularly work for the same employer you can ask about their salary increase policies to help argue for increasing your fees. Most employers in the public sector provide a small salary increase each year. Since 2008 this has usually been around 1-1.5%. You can also list the tasks and skills you need for the job and ask to compare these to their existing pay scale. For example, if you will be managing people you could ask for your fee to line up with management salaries.

More experienced and specialist artists can charge a higher fee, such as for community and education work

Many roles in the arts are not paid. Charity trustees, for example, do not usually get paid. But being a professional means that you get paid for your work.

People who are very committed to a project may choose not to get paid. You might set up a project and work for free on it yourself. But in a capitalist economy people still need to earn money. The time you spend working for free means you have less time to earn a living.

Artists sometimes decide to give up their fee if an arts projects has a very small budget. Tell the employer that you have waived your fee. This makes it clear that you should get paid but have decided that you will not take a fee. Calculate what your fee would be and insist they acknowledge it as a donation instead.

You should only consider working for free if you are certain that:

• The project is of high personal or professional value
• You are financially able to afford to work for free
• No-one else working on the project is getting paid

If you are working for an employer who makes an income, or gets public funding, they should not ask you to work for free. It is illegal for a company not to pay someone for their work under National Minimum Wage legislation

Volunteers for charitable organisations will not get paid, but should get expenses. This would cover things like travel or lunch. Volunteers cannot be set specific tasks and can choose when they work. If you are being offered a role with specific things you have to do, you are not volunteering and you should claim payment.