ikr?
Both wages and commissioned rates for the rank and file of the industry have remained static since the mid-90s.
Not even static allowing for the inflation. Just... static.
It's really pronounced in the UK, but I work across several countries, and it's a global issue.
It's one of the long list of reasons that I'm doing less journalism and more stuff in development and other writing trades.
Say what you like about the video games industry, but at least they don't ghost you if you quote adequate compensation for the actual time involved in a job.
Socia media seems to have a huge impact on journalism and the compensation people get for their work. People don't like paywalls but perhaps what needs to happen is transparency as to how much the journalist (who is out there facing danger in some cases) is actually compensated.
I think recent course cases have started to highlight the problem, with the games industry games are quite expensive, but the work needed to produce games is also highly skilled (as is journalism).
The difference is a news paper costs <£2 a game will cost you more than >£20 for example, so the income from 1 game is huge based on millions of sales.
I think we are starting to see people demanding not only a wage that allows them to live but also a reflection of their skill level, taking into account how hard it is find people with the right skills.
Perhaps this is the start of a fight against capitalism, where the owners make billions when the people doing the work stuggle to make ends meet.
