Anyone interested in the animation industry is more or less well aware how animators are generally treated. Very long hours, minimal pay, sometimes working even without compensation, struggling to deliver their best work in horrible conditions. This is mostly the case for major studios in Japan, where the animation industry thrives by targeting mostly teenagers and young adults rather than solely children, as is the case in the West. Since the working environment in Japan (and Eastern Asian countries overall) is quite different compared to other first world countries, in said country delivering a decent product and maintaining a good reputation is more important than being fairly compensated for the work done. Over there, overworked animators are dying left and right from stress, but to my knowledge animators aren’t going on strike to make change happen. On the other side of the world (i.e United States), similar conditions exist, but this fact is regarded and treated as a scandal. Titmouse is one of the companies mentioned in regards to these scandals, and it is very interesting how it came to such controversy. Basically, the company has split itself into two, one where they pay decent salaries due to the employees being in a union, and another where they subcontract non-union workers, where they pay up to $400 a week per artist – one of the lowest wages for an artist in the U.S. It is understandable that companies want to get the most money out of their products, and one way to do it is by paying their workers disgustingly low wages, but it is also very surprising how artists themselves agree on working in such conditions. Though, thinking about it now, I can understand that as an up and coming artist you kind of want to work on whatever you can get your hands on, to make a name for yourself and get yourself all set to be a part of the industry. Conflicting situation indeed.
