Short-term contracts and low pay are making careers in animation unsustainable, says union

Gregory Wayne said that in his first job as an animator, he was asked to register as self-employed so he could be paid as a freelancer. 

The job only lasted a few weeks, he said. Afterwards, he struggled to access social welfare because he was registered as self-employed, he said.

A recent whiparound survey of members by the union Animation Workers of Ireland found that this kind of precarity is a widespread problem.

“It’s extremely rare to be permanent,” said Wayne, the area co-ordinator of Animation Workers of Ireland, on a recent video call. 

Many artists in the animation industry in Dublin can’t plan their lives or get mortgages because of the short-term contracts in the sector and few permanent posts, say union representatives.

“Getting into this industry was a dream come true,” wrote an animation artist, in one survey response. “Now with its short contracts and sporadic employment, it's basically impossible to buy a house and start a family.”

That echoes findings in a report commissioned by the industry group Animation Ireland, published in 2025: Ireland’s Animation Industry: Workplace Demographics. 

For that report, animation studios were surveyed, and 74 percent of respondents “agreed that job stability is the greatest concern for people working in the sector”.

Meanwhile, despite increases in the cost of living in recent years, many workers have not seen pay increases, say union representatives.

In 2024, only half of the studios increased salaries, said the report, Ireland’s Animation Industry. So, half didn’t.

Animation Ireland, a representative group for the industry, which published the report, said it couldn’t answer questions on behalf of the sector.

“Animation Ireland is a trade representative organisation,” said CEO Ronan McCabe. “Our role is to advocate for the animation industry on policy matters both nationally and at EU level.” 

He suggested asking individual studios about employment arrangements. Several large animation studios also didn’t respond to queries in time for publication.

Meanwhile, animators already struggling with precarity and low pay also now face the looming threat of AI – expected to take a significant toll on the creative sector.  

Precarious working and layoffs

Elisa Beli Borrelli, another member of the Animation Workers of Ireland, says that regardless of how talented or experienced an animator is, they could face unemployment at the end of their current contract. 

That’s because the number of jobs in the industry is contracting, they said. 

It's common for people to move abroad for an eight-month contract and people from other countries could come here for an eight-month contract, they say. 

“It's kind of rare to work for a studio solidly without a contract finishing,” says Cora McKenna, another union member. 

Figures in the industry report on demographics suggest the animation workforce is young. Many studios didn’t answer questions about ages, but for those that did, only 17 percent of staff were aged over 45. 

Union representatives say this is likely because of the precarious nature of the work and low pay, which makes it unrealistic as a long-term career. 

One of the biggest problems with working contract-to-contract is that you cannot get a mortgage. For those with a partner, it can mean feeling their career choices are holding them both back.

“It's not sustainable”, says Beli Borelli. “The reality is it's really hard to get a mortgage when you're laid off for X months every year.”

Some small studios are genuinely struggling to survive from project to project, they say – but there are also larger profitable studios which, they feel, could provide better job security if they wanted to. 

Real value of wages 

Another side of the precarity comes from chopping and changing pay, said Wayne. 

From one contract to the next, somebody can move between similar roles in the same studio but on a lower salary, he said. 

“It's not uncommon for salaries to fluctuate project to project, and many studios will attempt to get people to sign onto lower wages between productions even if they are working there continuously,” he says.

Wayne says that in the studio where he works he makes €32,500 as a background artist, while a grade up – a key background artist – makes €34,500. 

But living costs are growing. 

Not only is the real value of wages declining, say the union reps, but gross pay can also go down not up. 

Sometimes salaries decline because people have to accept less senior positions to stay in work, says Séan Nolan, another union representative by email. “They can't see work of their current level coming down the line,” he said.

Often contracts change every six months, he said, so many people are working at a level below their capability.

“That results in workers facing an uphill battle as they fight to maintain their deserved pay,” he said, “let alone negotiate raises as someone progressing through their career would expect to see.”

Still, burning out

On paper, many studios have policies that say you shouldn’t work overtime, but in reality there is pressure to meet deadlines, union representatives also say. 

Workers often do unpaid overtime to meet those deadlines, they say. 

In severe cases, workers are pushed to burnout, says Beli Borelli. They joined the union when they worked in a studio where a senior management mistake led to workers being placed under massive strain to meet impossible deadlines. 

People had to work late and work through breaks. “Depending on your role you had to book five minutes to go to the toilet,” they say. 

Some workers were seriously stressed. “Some of them were genuinely psychologically distressed and close to breaking point,” they say. “All because of making cartoons.”

In that job workers who were burned out were laid off and then went on to be successful in other companies, says Beli Borelli. “If only there was better upper management.”

Looking to the future?

The impact of artificial intelligence is likely to erode employment opportunities further, even if it hasn’t kicked in yet, said McKenna. 

“The tools aren’t advanced enough yet, but some studios are investing,” McKenna said.

Many artists won’t be happy to find their drawings fed into AI, she said, but that isn’t something they can control. 

The studio owns the copyright. “Its not your drawing anymore, they own your drawings,” says Eoghan Sellier. 

In the meantime, the union is pushing to ensure that all contracts are fair and legal and calling on workers to get in touch. “The union can read your contracts and help you out,” says Beli Borelli.

Sellier says that the reliance of Irish studios on American streaming services for work is also a problem. 

He would like to see the sector booming with more internal funding, he said. “We need to nurture the talent pool we have. We have people coming from all over the world to work here.”

Beli Borelli says the industry is so insecure that some animators have trained as tattoo artists, as a fall-back. “I learned how to tattoo in case I get laid off. I'm not kidding.”