Digital Culture Subsector
Do you work in the field of digital culture? Do you employ or hire digital creators? Then it is important to consider fair pay. What constitutes appropriate remuneration for a work of art, performance, or presentation? And what terms of employment should accompany it? FairPACCT provides assistance through concrete guidelines and tools.
Digital makers deserve better
Calculating what a digital maker should earn is not a simple task. To begin with, the term ‘digital maker’ is very broad, encompassing numerous different disciplines between art and technology.
They often develop their products themselves from start to finish. They are simultaneously concept developers, researchers, technical producers, and performers.
This makes the digital culture sector complex regarding fair pay: it requires a bespoke approach because no two assignments are truly the same. To develop proper standards and guidelines from within the sector, fairPACCT has brought together the Digital Culture chain table.
About the chain table
The Digital Culture chain table was established in May 2023 and consists of sixteen professionals from the field. Among them are artists, video, sound, and game designers, curators, and festival programmers, as well as policymakers and representatives from arts education institutions and funds. Led by chairman Noud van de Rhee (program manager of fairPACCT), they examine ways to promote fair pay in this field. The chain table conducts its own research and commissions studies, performs analyses, and develops guidelines and tools: concrete products for practical application. Examples from the cultural sector and comparable industries are used for this purpose.
Tools & downloads
In-depth preliminary research
Survey report
‘Digital culture: a vast terrain without strict boundaries.’
Appendices:
- Dutch version of the survey questionnaire
- English version of the survey questionnaire.
Reference framework for digital culture rates
Overview of the terms of employment and rates within the subsectors of design, visual arts, technology, and research.
Profile description and job classification advice for independent makers in Digital Culture
In this document, the job profile of a professional digital culture maker is classified according to the job evaluation system used by universities. This assessment considers work experience, duties, focus areas, education level, knowledge, and skills. Based on this classification, a freelance hourly rate has been calculated. If you, as an independent digital culture maker, have a job profile as described in the report, you can use this hourly rate as a recommended freelance rate. If your job profile does not fully match—for example, due to more or less work experience—you can use the hourly rate as a reference when determining your own rate.
Freelance rate tables for independent makers in Digital Culture
Here you will find the tables with fair pay freelance rates up to and including 2026 for the job profile of independent makers in Digital Culture. There is no online calculation tool.