How much income do cultural and creative professionals earn?

A pilot study on income by occupation and industry code. Written by Swedish Arts Grants Committee and The Swedish Agency for Cultural Policy Analysis.

The number of permanent jobs is relatively low among creative professionals. Instead, the labour market is characterised by fixed-term employment and commissions, and it is common for cultural and creative professionals to have multiple employers, clients or both. Self-employment is widespread and often combined with income from employment. Income is often unpredictable and varies during the year and between different years. Cultural and creative professionals as a group tend to have higher education levels compared with other occupations in the labour force. As a result, their overall income is often complex compared with many other occupational groups among other gainfully employed individuals in the population.

To effectively monitor the working conditions of cultural and creative professionals at the core of the cultural and creative sectors, we need to gain a better understanding of the sources and distribution of their income based on factors such as occupation, gender, age and background.