Report highlights worsening financial woe for arts freelancers

Nearly half of performing arts freelancers now earn less than the living wage, according to a major new report.

The latest Big Freelancer Survey (BFS) - conducted by Freelancers Make Theatre Work in partnership with the University of Essex - paints an increasingly worrying picture of the financial pressures faced by performing arts freelancers.

It found that freelancers’ pay and working conditions are not getting better - in fact, they are getting worse.

Since 2020, when the survey first gathered data on freelancers’ pay, an increasing number have fallen into the category of earning under the UK National Living Wage, and evidence in this year’s survey points to this situation continuing to worsen. Meanwhile, year-on-year, expenses have increased for around three-quarters of the workforce.

Professor Melissa Tyler, from Essex Business School, said: “The data provided by thousands of respondents since 2020 presents a clear, and deeply concerning, picture of the situation in which UK arts freelancers find themselves.

“Year-on-year, the responses have highlighted intensifying issues of low pay, inequality, and insecurity. The world-renowned UK performing arts sector cannot survive without a thriving freelance workforce.

To compensate for their low pay as a freelancer, more than half of the latest 1,270 respondents said they had to juggle other jobs to cope with the rising cost of living.

A quarter of respondents confirmed they are currently considering leaving the industry altogether or changing their role within it. The main reasons given were low pay, not enough work, mental health and job insecurity.

“It is time now for government, unions and arts organisations to act on this report, and its evidence-based recommendations, and make urgently needed, fundamental changes to the entire industry’s working relationship with freelancers,” added Professor Tyler, who worked with colleague Professor Philip Hancock on the report.

The survey data also uncovered that pay levels stagnated after the age of 35, with many mid-career freelancers finding themselves not in a financial position to start a family, whilst almost half (42%) of those later in their careers has not started saving for retirement.

• The full report – Who's Taking the Hit? – can be found on the Freelancers Make Theatre Work website.