Minimum wage for gigging musicians?
US House of Representatives recently passed the first minimum wage increase in about 10 years.
However, as far as I know, the minimum wage has never applied to gigging musicians!
Musicians trek out every night of the week with expensive equipment, years of practice to hone their native talents, to showcase original works - sometimes at no pay or for only pennies per hour.
Do you think bands are being exploited by club owners? Do you think every member of the band should earn at least the minimum wage for every performance (including setup and put-away, if not travel)? For example, a band of 6 people plays a club, spends 3 hours between setup and put-away - for a total of 18 hours. At say $8/hour, that would be $144 minimum price for each band that played.
How do you think club owners would respond to a minimum wage for musicians? Would they hire just as many bands? If they cut out some music, which bands would they cut?
If you don't think a minimum wage for musicians makes sense, why would we have a minimum wage for some people but not musicians? Maybe none of it makes sense...
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