Who would want a job in the art market today?

Who would want a job in the art market? It might look glamorous from the outside, but the sector has witnessed widespread redundancies, falling job satisfaction and stagnant earnings growth, while being characterised by demanding hours in high-pressure environments that lack diversity, according to the latest Talent Report, published this week.

Compiled by recruitment company Sophie Macpherson (SML) and research group ArtTactic, this survey of 1,590 employers and employees, mostly in the UK and US, found that in the UK the median art market salary was £38,000, just above the Office for National Statistics’ UK-wide median of £37,430, but below its £47,455 median for London (where most such jobs are based).

Black professionals reported the lowest median salary — 63 per cent of the amount made by their white counterparts — while men were found to be the highest earners, making as much as 60 per cent more than women in continental Europe and 23 per cent more in the US. This trend was a less stark 12.5 per cent more in the UK.

Overall between 2022 and 2024, the average art sector salary grew by 14 per cent in the UK and fell by nearly 7 per cent in the US. The accompanying cost of living crises “likely outpaced” any gains, says Rosie Allan, managing partner at SML, and satisfaction with remuneration fell by 25.7 per cent in the US and by 19.6 per cent in the UK between 2023 and 2024. This was found to have affected older respondents the most (those over 50), despite this group having the highest overall earnings in the UK of £54,500, or $150,000 in the US. The report suggests that “additional financial commitments such as mortgages and retirement planning” were contributors to their dissatisfaction.

The report does not dig deep into the gender pay gap, though suggests the root cause is an age-old story of “men predominantly occupying senior or executive roles in the commercial art world, despite our findings indicating that a larger number of women work across the sector overall”. The issue was among those analysed in a separate survey of more than 2,000 women, also produced this week, by the Association of Women in the Arts and Artnet. This found that 54 per cent of women believed their salaries to be lower than men employed “in similar positions”, while less than 1 per cent of respondents thought they earned more.

Other factors exacerbate the trend. On a panel to mark the well-attended launch of the AWITA report, London gallerist Sadie Coles noted that while more than two-thirds of her staff of 40 were women, including its top earners, only five were parents. In her business, she finds, “gender pay parity is less of an issue than childcare for women, because the costs are so enormous . . . Often if someone decides they want to start a family, they have to think, can they stay in this industry?”

Other family-unfriendly issues include “the requirements to travel, be around at weekends — we’re all open on Saturdays — go to [evening] openings, be in the social milieu . . . All of that is very, very difficult,” Coles said. The SML report notes, too, that the majority of art world employees, often in public-facing environments, have fixed hours with relatively limited opportunities for remote work.

Another concerning finding is the role of education in the art world, notably in the UK, where the SML survey finds that an education to secondary school level (aged 18) resulted in a median salary of £52,000 versus £38,500 for employees with a masters degree. “Real-world experience and industry connections may matter more,” the report finds. Jonathan Woolfson, director of Sotheby’s Institute of Art, London — whose masters programmes include Art Business and Luxury Business — says it is a dynamic they have long been aware of. As such, he says, the institute’s academic programmes “combine direct industry experiences and connections to ensure that they provide the greatest possible enhancement to students’ employability”.

In SML’s breakdown of salaries per role in the sector, the highest-paid UK employee was found to be the director of an art advisory firm (salary guide £100,000), while in the US a director of a private collection was on $162,500. The lowest median pay was found to be for an art fair administrator in the UK (£26,000) and, in the US, a shipping and logistics administrator ($48,750).

The report hesitantly predicts an art market recovery, though there are signs that things have been getting worse since the more optimistic start to this year. A wave of redundancies among market players, notably at Sotheby’s auction house, has now extended to museums and other institutions, including at least 60 roles (18 per cent of staff) at London’s Royal Academy and an expected 40 redundancies (7 per cent) at Tate. The UK government’s recent Employment Rights Bill “has had unintended consequences, discouraging hiring, rather than promoting job security”, the report finds.

In the US, the Trump administration’s crackdown on diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives is negatively affecting the workforce and artistic programming. The SML report urges employers not to pull back, stating that “purely merit-based systems often fail to be truly objective”.

Despite the challenges, the report identifies opportunities for employees, including in cities outside of the traditional hubs of London and New York, such as Paris, Milan, Dubai and Riyadh, where the cultural scenes are expanding.

The sector’s employees also report the highest satisfaction with the “autonomy and independence” of their roles, leading to “a greater sense of ownership over their work,” Allan says. For employers that “take a strategic approach”, she adds, there is “strong talent” out there. Disruption is not such a bad thing, the report finds, as it can “create an opportunity for businesses to recruit experienced professionals who may not have been previously available”. Whether they are ready to stick out the art market remains to be seen.

sophiemacpherson.com; awita.london

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