It’s official. Writers are paid less than McDonald’s servers. Minimum wage in the UK is £7.83 an hour (as of April 2018). McDonald’s workers in the UK are paid £8 -10 an hour. At £8 an hour, if they work 8 hours a day, 20 days a month, their annual salary is £15,360. The Guardian says the median income of professional writers in the UK is under £10,500 a year, a fall of 42% since 2005.
“The word exploitation comes to mind. Many of us (writers) are being treated badly.” — Philip Pullman
And it’s not just in the UK. Another author looked at various surveys across the US, UK, Australia and Canada. The conclusion he drew could be summarized by the sub-header he used for his last paragraph: FALLING OFF A CLIFF.
“…figures out of Australia, Canada, the US and the UK showing that writers’ incomes have plummeted over the past two decades.”
— What’s happening to authors’ earnings? Surveying the surveys by The Author’s Interest, February 20, 2018
Commercial writing is a very unscalable way to make money. It’s not like selling products or services because you…
