Determining the Value of Skills

It was interesting to read an employment agency's summary of skills currently in demand and the accompanying salaries.  I dare not show this to Him Outdoors; the archetypal Martian who regularly, on my behalf, with the Martian's natural instinct to solve a problem the Venusian hasn't even raised, expresses his deep annoyance at the pittance freelance writers earn.

He knows more than anyone the hours I spend hunched over my computer, hastening my failing eyesight and creating crevices in my brow that would challenge Botox's best efforts.  If I cared enough to go that route (or could afford it!). Weekends and holidays flash by unnoticed in commitment to deadlines and delivery and the laptop is fired up before the first morning cuppa is brewed.

Engineering, it appears, is top of the pops in terms of demand. With finance, IT and medical in hot pursuit.  Monthly salaries range from R61 000 to R70 000, eye-watering sums indeed.  Policemen, nurses, teachers and social workers clock in between R9 700 to R14 000 a month, musicians average R15 000 and graphic artists around R13 000.  

The highest earning Member of Parliament in South Africa earned R226 400 per month in 2016. I'll leave this right here to fester.

The SAFREA rate for freelance writers is R3.50 a word. Let me tell you from experience what that means.

You see something interesting that you'd like to write about, so craft a letter to the editor about the topic, angle, who you are likely to feature, when it'll be ready and so on.  Success! You'v been commissioned to write a 1000 word article. With photographs which the mag doesn't pay for but you must provide. Oh, and this publisher pays R1 per word below the suggested freelance rates - do you have a problem with that?  You spend hours researching and sourcing people to interview.  Your head buzzes as you search for the opening 'hook', and the vital conclusion.  After almost a week of work, you deliver exactly 1000 words, with six photographs, precisely to brief.

"Um, we'll publish this in 3 months time."  OK, I'll have to wait four months for payment but am delighted to find a home for this piece.  Four months pass and the ed drops you a note - 'please invoice for 853 words, we had to cut the piece.'

And that's as good as it gets - I'm registered on an international Freelancers site and let me tell you, with writers from across the globe competing for work, rates of 1 US cent per word are quite common.  

It's ironic that the creative arts are so poorly paid, unless you are a Hollywood star or a musical global phenomenon. Can you imagine your life without music, looking at a beautiful sculpture or painting, or reading for knowledge or pleasure?  I certainly can't yet those essentials don't drop out of thin air - they were produced with time, effort and God given talent. And justifying poorly paid, vital workers such as teachers, social workers, cops, nurses and so on as 'vocational' makes me want to vomit.  These are skills EVERYONE, at some point in their life, depends on. These are the carers, life savers and life changers society cannot do without.  It takes a special kind of person to enter these careers so why, oh why, do they not carry the salary scale of an engineer or an IT geek?  

Please don't feel sorry for me, I love writing more than anything I've ever done. Naturally, as with all jobs, it often palls under the pressure to produce for a living but the expanse of knowledge gained, the people I've met, the experiences I've had are priceless and worth everything.

It seems that as I get older, a communist salary system becomes more appealing.  Equal pay for equal work isn't only about the sexes.  If a nurse, a writer and an engineer each work long hours and give it all they have, why should the financial rewards be so radically disparate?

Who determines the worth of a person's skills?  I'm a believer in effort and results.  If both are fully given, then 100% value has been delivered and the job description and title should surely slide down the value scale?