Report on Actors' Earnings Survey 2024
- Typical median earnings as a performer for Primary Occupation performers are £17,500 per annum, increasing to £22,500 per annum for those who spend all of their working time as a performer. This income is less than the typical (median) amount for individual UK workers (£34,963 in 2023), and slightly less than minimum wage (assuming a 40 hour work-week – £23,795).
- Low earnings from work as a performer are subsidised by other income (a ‘day job’) and by other members of the household. Additional income from other (non-performing) work increases typical individual earnings to £22,500 for Primary Occupation performers, with a more substantial increase from other members of the household with typical earnings of £45,000.
- Scripted productions (which rely on scripts and pre-production rehearsals) are the most important source of income for performers. Very few performers receive income from the use of their content on digital platforms (12% of Primary Occupation performers), or receive additional income from new modes of distribution of their work (for example, only 25% of Primary Occupation performers received contractual royalties or residual payments from subscription services).
- Differences in income distribution between demographic groups are less than anticipated. For example, both men and women typically earn £17,500 per year in respect of their earnings as a performer, as do both heterosexual performers and LGBT+ performers, and white and black performers. Despite being an ostensibly ‘privileged’ profession, performers from professional backgrounds do not earn a higher income than those with less privilege (again, stabilising at around £17,500). However, there is a sizable difference in income between performers with disabilities (£7,500) and performers without disabilities (£17,500)
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The Actors’ Earnings report highlights the real struggles our members face and how the landscape has worsened significantly. It breaks the myth that actors are well off and indeed shows how the vast majority of actors do not receive a sustainable income from their profession, earning well below the national minimum wage.
BECS calls on the Government to support actors and introduce mechanisms that BECS has long been campaigning for:
– Ratification of the Beijing Treaty – 12 years since agreeing and signing this international agreement on AudioVisual performers’ rights, BECS is calling for overdue ratification in a way that will improve our members’ ability to earn fair remuneration.
– Introduction of the SMART Fund. This is a scheme that remunerates the private copying of copyrighted works and is being advocated for by a wide range of UK’s collective management organisations that work to protect creators’ rights. It is more urgent than ever before as a number of countries have stopped paying private copying levies to BECS members citing the requirement for reciprocity post the UK’s withdrawal from the EU.
– Unwaivable and unassignable right to remuneration for Making Available on demand, paid by the platforms in addition to payment due from the producer under contract, to ensure performers fairly share in the long-term success and use of their work on streaming platforms.
– The report also highlights that action needs to be taken to prevent generative AI from being trained on performers’ work and used to create look and soundalikes of performers without consent or payment.
The government’s urgent support on the above, will help to ensure the UK’s incredible Film and TV Industry can remain the powerhouse it has always been and continue to boost the UK’s soft power globally. If there is no legislative change, the alarming statistics reported by BECTU and the DCMS on the number of people leaving the performing arts will only worsen as performers cannot afford to carry on waiting for things to improve. Although BECS supports the new government’s initiative to improve Arts Education for all school children, it is also extremely important to ensure actors can make a sustainable living from their profession – that is the only way we can continue to nurture the acting talent pool for which the UK is known.
