50% of full-time freelance musicians earn less than 18,000 euros gross per year.
IG Freie Musikschaffende publishes the results of the shadow survey conducted in March 2022, in which 227 performing freelance musicians now have their say.
"We finally need concepts that not only talk about fair pay, but also bring it into reality", comments conductor and IGFM member Michael Koeck on the results of the survey. Otherwise, the high quality on the stages in Austria as a cultural country cannot be sustained. It must be possible to offer high quality as a full-time musician without ending up in the poverty trap.
IG Freie Musikschaffende is publishing a shadow survey as a contribution to the BMKÖS fairness process and as a follow-up to the Gallup survey of autumn 2021. This survey aims to provide a more detailed picture: It not only investigated how much funding is needed on the part of workers:inside the music sector, but also whether reserves can be saved for phases of unemployment, for health care or cases of illness. The survey refers to times before the pandemic - that is, to "normal everyday life" as a freelance musician.
In November 2020, the Fairness Process was relaunched by State Secretary Andrea Mayer. In the course of this, the Federal Ministry of Arts, Culture, Public Service and Sport (BMKÖS) commissioned a survey to determine the fair pay gap. The target group of the study, which was conducted by the Gallup Institute, were cultural institutions, cultural organisers and employers in the arts and cultural sector.
Here you can download and read the final report of the Shadow survey.
Where do the performing artists have their say?
Based on this question, IG Freie Musikschaffende launched a shadow survey as a supplement to the BMKÖS Fair Pay Gap Study, in which those directly affected were interviewed. The results clearly show that a lot still needs to be done to cover living costs from the income of freelance work, as well as to provide for phases without engagements or periods of illness.
- 66% of respondents cannot cover regular living costs from their income from freelance work.
- 76.3% cannot build up reserves for periods of unemployment from their income from freelance work.
- Only 3.6% of respondents can build up reserves for periods of unemployment.
A life as a purely freelance musician without a sideline in Austria is practically impossible without increasing subsidies to 1% of GDP. " But these increased subsidies must also reach the musicians," adds violist Martina Reiter of the IGFM.