Friday 29 January 2016

Pay your entertainers!

A little thing I saw the other week set a fire in me, which has caused me to be outraged at how the entertainment industry is being short changed at times, and people are falling for it.

The post was from a rather popular bar in the heart of Manchester City Centre, on canal street. Now, as I haven't approached them for comment, it's not fair to name and shame them, as the chances of them reading this are slim to none, but it is to do with their owner's post on Facebook looking for drag queens.

Now I get it, new drag queens are sometimes not up to the job fully. They are still learning their trade and could need some guidance when it comes to how to handle a crowd etc. This alone though isn't enough to be able to say that they don't deserve a fair pay for a fair amount of work. This bar in question was advertising and stating that on the job training was a part of the pay and as a result the pay "wasn't that good".

How is this acceptable? I know that in the entertainment industry hourly pay isn't a standard thing, it's usually x amount for the night or something and i'm not calling for this to be changed. I am however saying that a bar, shouldn't be taking advantage of people. I know that bar's can make a lot of money, even during the week when there's not a lot of customers which I why I find it's not acceptable to pay your entertainers less. Customers often come to a bar because of the entertainment being provided, without the entertainers, customers wouldn't turn up in many cases. Entertainment of all sorts can increase sales and help a venue to become well known.

So we must come together, as entertainers, and begin to set our own standards. Say that a good night's pay must help us to pay at least some of our bills. To say that no longer will "on the job training" become equal to a pay cheque. We can all learn our trade while making a good pay cheque and owners of venue's who wish to try and take advantage, can either join us and pay us properly, or they can allow their customers to drift off, while they struggle to find entertainers.

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