“It feels like I’ve been working harder and harder and sliding backwards down the scale,” she says.
Making $50k in a small town and still “scraping by” is scary. Maybe I’m just old, but I’d hoped that kind of income would be enough for some kind of comfort.
I feel like jobs like these are passion jobs. Or employers feel like if it’s something you’re passionate about and care about, then you should be willing to do it for less.
For example, had a few friends work for the Canucks. I’m pretty sure the family who owns Canuck’s are billionaires, but because the people who work there are passionate about the sport and the team, they get away with below living wages for the privilege of just being around.
Obviously not the same, but… yeh. We under pay people who care and feel indebted to their clients and the work they love.
Game developers seem to get paid very little for something that’s very difficult.
At the root i think passion among a great many people for (games, animals, hockey), leads to an oversupply of talent, which leads to depressed wages.
When I was in college for a CS degree, just about every single classmate I asked said they were planning on going into game dev, when you have entire graduating classes all gunning for the same positions in a relatively niche field, you can pay peanuts and still fill roles
Ah good example! I’m hoping that unions help our game developer friends.