MEAA surveys publishing employees

The Media, Entertainment and Arts Alliance (MEAA) has created a survey for publishing industry employees.

The survey considers age, gender, diversity factors, employment status and number of years in the book industry. Questions on salary look at annual income, pay increases, and if respondents they believe they’re paid fairly for their work and skill level. The survey also covers hours of work and workloads, and looks at key issues in the workplace, including racism and sexism.

As a union and industry advocate for Australia’s creative professionals, MEAA said it’s running the survey with ‘a view to tackling systemic problems in the book industry such as unpaid overtime, a culture of churn and burn, lack of pay and career progression, pay inequality as well as no enforceable minimums for freelancers’.

MEAA deputy director of media Matthew Burton told Artshub the survey followed a meeting of book industry workers in February this year, and that there was currently no specified end date for the survey. ‘Penguin Random House renegotiating its agreement in 2022 resulted in MEAA receiving renewed interest from workers across the industry wanting to unionise to improve conditions,’ said Burton. ‘Anecdotally—and confirmed by early survey results—the book industry is rife with long hours, burnout and insecure work.’

Books+Publishing had conducted surveys on industry wages, hours worked and bonuses in 2022, 2018 and 2013 and found salary drops and stagnation over that time.

Category: Local news