Racialized workers have particularly low incomes in the arts and culture

Analysis of the incomes of artists, arts leaders, and all cultural workers, including differences by gender

Two weeks ago, I showed that Black, Asian, and other racialized people are underrepresented among artists, arts leaders, and workers in a broad range of cultural occupations. In that brief post, I did not have the space for an analysis of incomes.

Today’s post analyses the median incomes of racialized and non-racialized men and women within four broad groupings of occupations: artists, arts leaders, workers in cultural occupations, and all Canadian workers.

The post examines income statistics for artists as a group, for arts leaders as a group, and for cultural occupations as a group – not for individual occupation categories (e.g., writers, actors, performing arts managers, etc.).

The income statistics from the 2021 census relate to 2020, a year with many pandemic lockdowns and slowdowns in artistic activity. Median personal income is highlighted, which includes all sources of income, including (for example) employment income and pandemic supports.

In this post, I use the term racialized to refer to what Statistics Canada has called the visible minority population. According to the Employment Equity Act, visible minority people include “persons, other than Aboriginal peoples, who are non-Caucasian in race or non-white in colour." National statistics indicate that the racialized population consists mainly of the following groups: South Asian, Chinese, Black, Filipino, Arab, Latin American, Southeast Asian, West Asian, Korean, and Japanese.

As is often the case, this post is a high-level summary of the situation of racialized artists, arts leaders, and cultural workers. For example, the post examines all racialized workers, rather than exploring differences between Black, Asian, and other racialized workers. The post also highlights gender differences, but these are not explored in significant detail.

More data and deeper analysis are possible but, frankly, require more funding to do so. On that note, I want to state that I’m not happy to place a post on the incomes of equity seeking groups behind a paywall, but paid subscribers are my only source of funding for these reports. I have to provide value added for them.

Details about the occupation groups included in each of the broad categories are available at the end of this post, along with other notes regarding methods.

Please let me know if you are interested in a deeper profile of Black, Asian, or racialized artists, arts leaders, and/or all cultural workers. The sponsor / shareable level subscription ($750 including taxes) is one way that we could make a bit more analysis available for Canada, a specific province, or a municipality. There is also the option of an even deeper dive via a custom project that would cost more than $750.

Context: Racialized workers have lower incomes in general

Among all workers in the Canadian economy, as shown in the graph below, non-racialized men have by far the highest median personal incomes. Non-racialized women have much lower median incomes, and racialized men and women have even lower median incomes. Specifically:

• Non-racialized men have a median income of $58,000.

• Non racialized women have a median income of $47,200, 19% lower than non-racialized men.

• Racialized men have a median income of $44,400, 23% lower than non-racialized men.

• Racialized women have the lowest median income ($41,200, or 29% lower than non-racialized men).

The rest of this post examines median incomes among artists, arts leaders, and all workers in cultural occupations.

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Incomes are particularly low for racialized artists and racialized people in other occupations in the arts, culture, and heritage

Artists

For artists, as shown in the graph below:

• Non-racialized men have the highest median income ($34,400).

• Non-racialized women have median income of $29,200, 15% lower than non-racialized men.

• For the 1,700 racialized men artists, the median income is $26,600, 23% lower than non-racialized men.

• For the 800 racialized women artists, the median income is $26,200, 24% lower than non-racialized men. (Note that there is only a very small gap between racialized men and women.)

Among artists, there is a significant income gap between non-racialized men and others. In general, these gaps are similar to those for all Canadian workers.

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Arts leadership occupations

The graph below shows that, among arts leaders:

• The median personal income is the same for non-racialized men and women who work in one of five arts leadership occupation groups ($59,600).

• Racialized men who are arts leaders have a median income of $40,000, 33% lower than non-racialized men.

• Racialized women who are arts leaders have a median income of $50,400, 15% lower than non-racialized men.

It is unusual and interesting that non-racialized women who are arts leaders have incomes that are equal to non-racialized men. It is also interesting that racialized women who are arts leaders have much higher incomes than racialized men. These statistics seem to indicate that, when they obtain arts leadership positions, women are paid relatively well.

A more thorough analysis would be required to better understand these findings, including the mix of arts leadership occupations occupied by women and men, education levels, work experiences, and differences in employment (and household) incomes, not just total personal incomes.

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All workers in the arts, culture, and heritage

Finally, among workers in all cultural occupations:

• Non-racialized men have the highest median income ($51,600).

• Non-racialized women have a median income of $45,600, 12% lower than non-racialized men.

• Racialized men have a median income of $42,400, 18% lower than non-racialized men.

• Racialized women have a median income of $38,800, 25% lower than non-racialized men.

There is a substantial income gap between cultural workers who are non-racialized men and all other groups. However, these gaps are slightly smaller than those for all Canadian workers.

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Notes on methods, including occupation lists

All of the above income statistics relate to 2020, a year with many pandemic lockdowns and slowdowns in artistic activity. It was also a year when many artists and cultural workers received support from pandemic assistance programs, including the Canada Emergency Response Benefit (CERB). It is impossible to know whether the lockdowns and slowdowns in artistic activity or the CERB payments had a greater impact on the differences in median incomes between artists and other workers. In theory, if the CERB payments had a greater stabilizing effect on incomes than the artistic shutdowns and slowdowns, it would have the effect of decreasing the income gaps between arts workers and other workers in 2020.

Statistics Canada’s full occupation titles for the 10 occupation groups included as artists are:

• Actors, comedians, and circus performers

• Artisans and craftspersons

• Authors and writers (excluding technical writers)

• Conductors, composers, and arrangers

• Dancers

• Musicians and singers

• Other performers (including buskers, DJs, puppeteers, face painters, erotic dancers, and many other entertainers)

• Painters, sculptors, and other visual artists

• Photographers

• Producers, directors, choreographers, and related occupations

The five arts leadership occupations are:

• Conductors, composers, and arrangers

• Conservators and curators

• Library, archive, museum, and art gallery managers

• Managers in publishing, motion pictures, broadcasting, and the performing arts

• Producers, directors, choreographers, and related occupations

The statistics on workers in arts, culture, and heritage occupations include people who work in 52 occupation groups, including:

• Heritage occupations such as librarians, curators, and archivists

• Cultural occupations such as graphic designers, print operators, editors, translators, architects, and professionals in fundraising, advertising, marketing, and public relations

• 10 artist occupations

The occupational perspective counts people who work across the economy, as long as they are classified into one of the selected occupation groups.

A list of the 52 cultural occupation groups is available in my post from May 18, which also outlined the methods behind choosing these 52 occupation groups. In a post on April 18, I highlighted some strengths and limitations of the census for counting artists and cultural workers.