W.A.G.E. – Working Artists and the Greater Economy

Minimum payment standards for artists’ labor

W.A.G.E. – Working Artists and the Greater Economy

Since its founding in 2008, W.A.G.E.’s work has developed in service of a single achievable goal—regulating the payment of artist fees in the nonprofit sector—but they emerge from a long tradition of artists organizing around the issue of remuneration for cultural work in the United States that dates back to the 1930s. W.A.G.E.’s mission is to establish sustainable economic relationships between artists and the institutions that contract artists’ labor, and to introduce mechanisms for self-regulation into the art field that collectively bring about a more equitable distribution of its economy.

We are so inspired by W.A.G.E.’s work to fight unpaid labor in the arts, and build new models of collective bargaining and power for the field.

WAGENCY – WAGENCY is an artists’ solidarity union and a platform for negotiating the fair remuneration of artistic labor in the nonprofit sector. Supplying artists with digital tools and the collective agency to negotiate W.A.G.E. fees or withhold labor when not paid them, WAGENCY is a new model for organizing contingent workers. W.A.G.E. understands that artists ARE workers and deserve fair pay for their labor – WAGENCY empowers them to negotiate it. 

We are so inspired by W.A.G.E.’s work to fight unpaid labor in the arts, and build new models of collective bargaining and power for the field.