Forum - View topicNEWS: Labor Group: Animators in Their 20s Earn US$11,600 a Year
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GATSU
Posts: 15304 |
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Jesus, that income's just barely above poverty level in the U.S. With the kind of hyper-inflation they got in Japan, that's got to sting. I don't necessarily want to blame the production studios, since they probably can only pay so much, based on what they gross out of their titles, minus whatever they had to split with advertisers and those greedy record companies. So I'm guessing animators are getting screwed out of residuals.
Tenchi: You mean like Michael Arias? 
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Daemonblue
 Posts: 701 |
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You technically can live off of that much a year, but it's not much of a life to live. As was mentioned above, pretty much bare necessities such as food, water, and shelter. |
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Fronzel
Posts: 1906 |
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Maybe they could afford to pay them more if they made a few less moe harem series every year?
... And Japanese anime DVDs are astoundingly expensive, too...and yet I'm told they need to be to support the studios who often don't make any money from showing their productions on TV. The whole industry is starting to look like some sort of bizarre illusion to me. |
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Josh7289
Posts: 1252 |
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This is disgusting.
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Kyogissun
 Posts: 676 |
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...Wow... Just... wow...
...WOW... Jesus, there really, REALLY is something wrong with that. I mean... I expected animators to make at LEAST the equivalency of say... 'maybe' a college professor. I.E. 40-60k a year. Granted, this isn't normal to all states but the one's I have lived in and are moving to, it's the average. I think there's just at much talent required to draw well as there is to teach. And they go by without sleep at times and/or have only a few hours of free time a WEEK? Hell, the average fast food worker gets more time off than that! I too am not a huge fan of the power abusing unions that exist within any industry but... If there's one that seems to be having the right to complain, it's this labor group. |
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Paploo
Posts: 1875 |
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http://animationguildblog.blogspot.com/ If you want an idea what domestic animators make, and what their working conditions can be like, The Animation Guild's blog is pretty insightful for a daily read.
An Animator might make a larger amount at Disney, Pixar or Dreamworks, but basically only makes a general living wage many places, and even at higher paying places, longterm work is not guaranteed, usually just employing people for the duration of a project [ie- the production of a movie, or a TV series whose continued work depends on getting renewed]. It seems that many float inbetween projects, and the TAG Union ensures everyone gets paid, has proper benefits, etc. Comic Artists, Animators, most creative fields tend to not to be permanent jobs, relying on contract work, and not always with the safety net of a union, benefits or guaranteed work. Fans tend to be pretty clueless about this stuff. for comic artists, here's just one of many examples of bad situations you can find yourself inbetween work- http://comicbookresources.com/?page=article&id=21324 Josh Medor's has cancer and no insurance. People are rallying to help him out, but it's one of the things that makes me wince whenever I think about giving a full-time art career a go. |
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edzieba
Posts: 704 |
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There should probably be a note of what type of animator this applies to. 'Tweeners? Key animators? Background artists? Most 'tweening is outsourced (usually to Korea) anyway, so this figure would make sense in order for 'local' companies to stay competitive.
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larinon
 Posts: 992 Location: Midland, TX |
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When I was in graduate school, I was living on just a little more than that amount. Granted I had a scholarship that paid for tuition, fees, and books, but that's about all I made on my teaching assistant fellowship. And it was enough to live on, because I didn't have a car payment (10 year old used car), my student loans were still in deferment, and the only bills were rent, utilities, and the usual living expenses.
...unless you run up a credit card bill buying anime... *cough* This ignores the cost of living increases that have taken place in the past 8 years since I graduated...
Eh, that's about what I make now. Maybe you have to work your way up first? |
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zalbik
Posts: 9 |
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If $34,500 is the baseline then I really hope the $11600 is for part time work because if it is not then this is just plain slavery! My wife works a part time job as a checker at a grocery store and makes twice that. Something needs to be done about this because it stinks. |
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Kyogissun
Posts: 676 |
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You kind of have to work your way up... More, that you need a few years of experience and proper recommendations. She's been part time forever though, only works certain days of the week during certain times. I mean, if my family was moving to somewhere else, Connecticut being an example, her salary was going to be requiring at least 80k just due to living expenses house wise and whatnot... But it's all a matter of opinion to some degree which career requires more skill and knowledge... I'd be a bit biased and say that probably teaching is one half harder than the skills required to be a 'good' artist. |
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Mr. sickVisionz
 Posts: 2173 |
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LOL @ that pay. That is horrible. I work at my school... less than 20 hours per week and I get like 9k a year just for moving tables and chairs.
If these guys are doing a 40 hour work week and only getting 11k a year... I don't know what to say. How did it get that bad? Like really? At that low a wage the industry should be dominated by high schoolers and college interns. Even if you wanted to be an animator, that low pay eliminates anybody who has to pay rent and find enough money for bus/trainfare to and from work. I feel like this new story has to be hiding something. Like leaving out that staffers only work 10 hours a week or something that makes the $11k a year seem logical. I can't imagine any full time employee making only $11K a year in a developed country. |
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hissatsu01
 Posts: 963 Location: NYC |
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I find the alternating shock, dismay, and disbelief alternatively expressed regarding this story to be a bit amusing. Everything I've read for over a decade regarding working in the anime industry is that it's soul crushing, thankless labor for the most part, and yes, the pay is unbelievably low. No, they're not "part-timers". They're probably working far longer hours than most of us would care to. Considering the somewhat shaky state of the industry as a whole, (frankly, the whole business model is kind of broken) I don't see it getting better any time soon.
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TranceLimit174
 Posts: 958 |
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Well this answers the question I've had for years. When you're getting paid like that it's hard not to do just about everything that's become rampant in anime (filler, corner cuts to the extreme, harem re-hashes ect.). My question is where does all of the money in the industry go? Do advertisers demand such a large portion of profits that these are the conditions animators are left with? This article coupled with the other "anime is dying" articles that I find popping up it really does seem like it's only a matter of time before anime as a whole dies out (at least in terms of progress) unless something changes. My understanding of it all is due to every factor under the sun there's just not enough money flowing through the industry no matter where you look. I guess all of this time we've been watching toy commercials because merchandisers seem to be the only ones who are truly profiting from anime.
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AnimeAngel00
Posts: 22 |
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"According to the symposium, young anime staffers in their 20s earn an average annual salary of just over 1 million yen (US$10,500), and the industry is not training a big enough talent pool for its needs. "
This is an interesting paradox. There is a need for animators, but they are not being paid what they are worth. I really don't know what to make of it. Hopefully by next year, Japan will be recovering from it's recession, and maybe the animation business might pick up. This reminds me of the U.S.'s oh so "urgent need" for nurses and IT professionals, but I personally know many, many nursing and IT graduates (high GPAs, great work ethic, etc.) are still unemployed since 2007 and are still searching for work. Even before the "economic meltdown", I'd noticed the wages of both nurses and IT professionals downed a little bit each year since I've been in college. Hmmm.....Is there really a need for animators as the article stated if the wages are that low? *Just an observation and an opinion.* |
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LagannImpact
 Posts: 574 |
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Wow...this article is just...depressing. I sure as heck wouldn't work 70-80 hours a week for just over $10,000/yr. But these guys obviously LOVE this industry more than their own lives. Still, it's not right that they get paid this little, unless they have some kind of pension or something that isn't mentioned in the article. SOME reward for spending 30-40 years of your life drawing cartoon characters! Oh, and it would seem like with the computer age and recycled frames, productivity would be higher, but it seems to me like the companies just milk these poor kids for all they're worth. It's almost as if anime is made...IN SWEATSHOPS!!! Wow, what a depressing thought! 
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