16 September 2008
How Much Are You Worth?
Posted by Colin Mitchell under: ponderings .
A tremendous and always-relevant question posed by Daniel Paul Wilson over at the LA Stage Blog in this post: http://www.lastageblog.com/2008/09/12/salary. It was originally posted by the Director’s Lab West. The heart of Daniel’s piece can be summarized in this paragraph from his post:
“I guess what I am saying is that all this stuff we’ve been chatting about here - the Mike Daisy article, the future of American Theatre - all of it - it’s powerful stuff when you think about what our “non-profit” theatre world is really worth. When you take a look at how much money it takes for the Goodman to put up a season or the Taper or Ashland. I mean why can’t we all make a bit more? Why do the people on the lower end of this totem pole not even know what their bosses make? Mine makes 135k. How much is his job really worth? How much is mine?”
It speaks to an idea I’ve been pounding on for years: if artists refuse to see themselves and their talents as worth something - monetarily - they will continue to be exploited by those who DO see themselves and their talents as worth something monetarily. And therefore, if the artist refuses to make that shift, then the artist needs to shut up and stop whining and sleep in the bed that they have made for themselves.
Daniel goes on and amazingly finds a source that SHOWS exactly how much these top-dog artistic directors actually make:
“The top 6 on my list for the 2006 tax year:
Robert Falls Artistic Director $325,000 Goodman Michael Ritchie Artistic Dir/Dir $302,500 CTG
LIBBY APPEL ARTISTIC DIRECTOR $219,638 OSF
Martha Lavey Art Dir $180,000 Steppenwolf
DAVID J. ESBJORNSON ART DIR/EX-OFFICIO $175,000 Seattle Rep
TIMOTHY RUTH NEAR ARTISTIC DIRECTOR $162,173 SJ REP
Sheldon Epps Artistic Dir $160,000 Pasadena Playhouse
All this…
While the AD at the Perseverance Theatre in Alaska is making 36k or the AD at the “Next Theatre Company” in Chicago is making 44k.”
Now granted, some of these organization just have bigger budgets and larger audiences to work with, so the salaries will obviously be higher, but how did these people garner such nice salaries? Experience, talent, proven track records; yes, all of the above. And I’m sure at some point in their careers they just said, “Look this is how much I’m worth, until someone steps up and realizes it, my services are not for sale!”
I’ve pretty much been my own rep as a writer now going on about six or seven years and basically, when I’m approached for a job, I just tell them how much I’m worth and what I’m asking for - and then we negotiate. If they can’t reach something that satisfies me, I move on. I have removed the air of desperation from my professional life. And it has made all the difference. I’m still not at where I’d like to be, but I’m getting there.
This is not to say I don’t still do things for free. I’m writing these words at this very moment for free - because I enjoy it and it doesn’t take up a tremendous amount of my time. And of course there are those “labor of love” projects that we all simply submit to for the pure joy of it all. As we should.
But we as a community need to start demanding satisfactory compensation for the talents we provide, the talents we’ve honed over years and years of hard work and sacrifice. Until we do, we have nothing to complain about.
You’d be amazed how self-respect begets not only mutual respect, but quality, in every respect.