Pay transparency for freelance work
The arts sector is notoriously opaque about pay for freelancers, and pay for freelance work varies wildly. One of the findings from the focus group we held with disabled people from the global majority was the importance of pay transparency for freelance work.
We have decided to publish our current rates of pay for freelance work. These are what we typically offer people and are our starting point when we consider budgets and jobs. We sometimes deviate from these if it is a condition of finance, funding or a specific project. We may also pay differently if the scale of work or expertise required is different from standard. If we are offering a different sum of money, we will always be happy to provide our rationale for this.
Our minimum / standard pay for freelance work
| Item | Rate |
| Day rate on a project (usually 7 hours), e.g. performer, director, designer, access consultant (this sum is divided for ½, ¼ or ⅓ days for preparatory meetings but these are held online typically, removing travel burden) | £150 |
| Week rate on a creative project (usually 5 days x 7 hours), e.g. performer, director, designer | £700 |
| Design and delivery of a workshop (usually 2 – 3 hours including breaks) e.g. a workshop on our development programmes, a Writers’ Salon, or a creative workshop | £250 |
| Design and delivery of a workshop (usually 1 – 2 hours including breaks) e.g. an Incubate workshop | £150 |
| Day rate as a freelancer working within CRIPtic (e.g. research, reporting, campaigns) | £150 |
| Access work* | £115 – £150 |
| BSL interpreter – short duration daytime / evening (0-2 hours) | £150 / £160 |
| BSL interpreter – half-day daytime / evening (2-4 hours) | £175 / £230 |
| BSL interpreter – full day daytime / evening (4-8 hours) | £350 / £475 |
| Workshop write-up or other content for our website*** | £150 |
*This varies dependent on funder. If we need to match rates of an external funding provider or agency we may be able to do so. This is limited as these are the rates we build into our own funding bids to offer.
**We pay BSL rates slightly above union rates to ensure we can attract interpreters. We also offer a higher rate for evening work.
***If we have commissioned – this usually involves attending and writing up our workshops as part of producing resources
If we are creating other work not listed here – e.g. commissioning writing, we assume £150 per day as a starting point. We vary from that where necessary.
On some of our programmes, we require participants to prepare for and participate in group workshops. Where this is the case we often try to pay towards their time to do this. This is usually £50 per workshop. However, we only offer this where we require people to attend and only where the project funding is available.
Unpaid work and training opportunities
We have a policy of not taking people doing unpaid work in general, unless the work meets certain conditions. This is because offering unpaid work opportunities for people to build experience often excludes working class and low-income people from the chance to gain experience and improve their CVs, if they can only afford to take paid work. This perpetuates the classism and class barriers in the field.
We will consider taking people doing unpaid work where it’s connected to an academic course requirement, as part of our access assessment training, or where:
- The person looking for unpaid work has approached us
- There is a clear benefit to the person in question including developing skills, experience, credits etc)
- There is an equity argument for giving them the opportunity to help reduce other barriers they face (e.g. they require access provisions that other organisations would not have in place)
- We are not benefitting significantly from their work as an organisation – they are developing and training rather than working, and are not replacing a paid role
- We do not have the funds to offer pay due to project budget limitations
If we are taking this work in-person we will pay for local travel and a per-diem.
If we are creating training roles from which we will benefit noticeably but where they are not replacing a full-scale role, we would look towards offering pay for freelance work at a minimum of National / London (as appropriate) Living Wage, as set by the Living Wage Foundation (link) per hour worked.
