Lisa Jopt, the president of the stage association GDBA, speaks of a “huge sign”. After all, what Jopt is doing now with two other stage unions and the German stage club has strapped down. According to this, the minimum fee for solo employees at German theaters is to rise to 2,715 euros by the beginning of next year. This applies to singers, dancers and actors at the beginning of their theater careers, but also to employees in stage technology or public relations. In addition, there is an allowance of 200 euros per month, which is automatically due after two years of employment. “In the last thirty years, the minimum fee has increased by around 770 euros,” summarizes Jopt, “within the next year it will increase by 915 euros.”
An increase has been required for years. After all, after years of studying, young professionals could hardly afford more than a one-room apartment in any city for 2,000 euros gross, not to mention financing a family. In addition, after years of study, they have to learn many new roles and work in the evenings and at weekends. “The minimum fee has not increased since 2018. In our opinion, that was a situation that could not be maintained,” says Claudia Schmitz, who, as managing director of the German Theater Association, represents the German theaters on the employer side. The stage association did not agree on its own, but agreed in a commission with theater directors and representatives of the legal entities.
If you ask around in the theater management, you will hear different tones in the days after graduation. The increase will make “the already difficult situation of theaters in Germany even more tense,” says Florian Stiehler, the managing director of the theater State Theater Augsburg. “The challenges posed by the Corona pandemic are still enormous, ticket sales are not yet at the pre-Corona level, we are looking forward to an uncertain autumn and winter and then there is the enormous rate of inflation, which is also leading to rising operating and material costs in theaters leads.” Seventy to eighty percent of theater budgets are fixed personnel costs. Only a small remainder remains for soloists and stage designers, who freely negotiate their contracts. Paradoxically, their art is the only area in which theaters can save at all.
The problem, however, is the point in time at which the increase was pushed through after many years of demands
Above all, the speed with which the increase is to be implemented is surprising. You should have “prepared everything differently,” says Jens Neundorff von Enzberg, director of the Meiningen State Theater and the Eisenach State Theater, both houses were merged in 2008. After all, the economic plans have already been fixed for 2024. For Eisenach, he could only attack reserves that would at best be sufficient for the coming year. Neundorff not only has to raise the new minimum fees, but also adjust the other fees. And not just once, but over the coming years. Because the stage trade unions have negotiated with the stage association that the minimum fees will be dynamically adjusted to the respective wage agreements of the other employees in the future.
That is a “paradigm shift” says Lisa Jopt. Because it has long been one of the complaints about abuses in multi-sector houses that young singers and actors earn significantly less there than, for example, the choristers who are covered by the collective bargaining agreement. For many large houses, increasing the minimum fee is not an issue because they only employ a few or no young professionals. At smaller theaters, the increase is consistently considered to be morally correct. The problem, however, is the point in time at which it was enforced after many years of demands and suddenly throws the fee structure out of sync. After two years of Corona, parts of the former audience are staying away and revenues are falling. In addition, the coffers of smaller municipalities in particular are empty in many places.
Many young actors and musicians do not find a permanent engagement at all and instead make their way on the open market
The massive increase poses “municipal multi-sector buildings” with enormous challenges, says Matthias Schloderer, commercial director Theater Regensburg. “Without a significant increase in the contribution from the city and in particular the support from the Free State of Bavaria, we will not be able to do without having to restrict art.” Regensburg is a comparatively prosperous municipality. The situation is considered to be much more dramatic, especially in eastern Germany. In Thuringia, Jens Neundorff fears that the increase in solo passages will “lead to a massive change in the theater landscape”. In the end, there must be “inevitable staff savings”. If the subsidies are not also significantly increased, the theater management would only have the choice between two bad alternatives. They either have to further downsize their ensembles, which have already shrunk over the past decades, and offer fewer performances. Or they regularly dismiss their ensemble members after a few years in order to hire beginners for the cheaper new minimum fee. “You may not fill vacancies,” says Claudia Schmitz from the German Theater Association, “and instead try to work with guests.” Talk to freelancers who are paid per engagement and for whom the minimum fee will also increase slightly under the new agreement.
However, this could result in the market becoming caught up in a dynamic of hire and fire, in which a few earn a little more, but more are left behind than before. After all, many young actors and musicians don’t find a permanent engagement at all and instead make their way through the open market. Most of them are happy to be able to perform at all, they sing in churches, for example, which pay 120 to 150 euros per mass. The complete loss of earnings in Corona times has made it all too clear that freelancers are the worst secured. Therefore, the pressure has grown to introduce minimum fees for free engagements. The state of North Rhine-Westphalia is leading the way, having committed itself in 2021 with its own cultural code to demanding minimum standards in state-funded projects. A hearing of the trade unions on the subject was recently held at the culture ministers’ conference of the federal states, and a corresponding recommendation for a resolution should also be available for other federal states by October.
Also took part in the hearing German Orchestra Association (DOV), who, actually representing the interests of the publicly funded orchestras, has increasingly taken on freelancers since the Corona crisis. She calls for rehearsals to be remunerated with at least 125 euros in the future, a full-day job including a concert with 250 euros. In the coming years, the rates are then expected to rise to 250 or 500 euros. The demand would affect state and municipal theaters and orchestras, in which many freelancers work as temporary workers, as well as free ensembles, which often only receive project funding and consist entirely of freelancers. So far, the fees of the orchestra assistants were purely a matter of negotiation, and were therefore not subject to the dynamism of the collective agreements for permanent orchestra members.
In the worst case, minimum fees can lead to a market shakeout that many independent ensembles do not survive
The new commitment of the DOV is viewed even more critically by some of those responsible in the market for independent orchestras. “This only works if state subsidies are increased at the same time,” says Jochen Schäfsmeier, the artistic director of the International Handel Festival in Göttingen. Until last year, Schäfsmeier was the managing director of Concerto Köln, so he knows the scene from two perspectives: as the person responsible financially for a renowned early music ensemble, but now also as an employer for other independent orchestras in Göttingen. He emphasizes that he would of course like to pay more. However, if project funding were to be linked to minimum fees in the future, he feared bureaucracy that would make many previous financing models impossible. At Concerto Köln, for example, he paid 170 euros per working day, regardless of whether there were only rehearsals or concerts. But with that he was able to secure the musicians 160 working days a year, almost something like a fixed income.
Schäfsmeier is particularly worried about “the big leap” that the increase in daily rates to 500 euros demanded by the DOV could mean. As director, he could then only invite ensembles that had already rehearsed a program, but not newcomers who needed more rehearsal time. He also sees difficulties in carrying out education projects or rediscovering unknown pieces, which required more time from everyone involved, but were also of particular interest to many. In the worst case, the implementation of minimum fees could lead to a market shakeout that many independent ensembles would not survive, which would also mean the end of the career of many freelancers.
Nobody wants there to be more unemployed singers, actors, instrumentalists and dancers. Rather, all those involved are counting on the public sector stepping in with higher subsidies. The question of how all this can be financed is justified, says Claudia Schmitz from the German Theater Association, the situation for the theater as a whole is precarious: “Our task as an association is now to discuss with the legal entities how we can come together.” Lisa Jopt also appeals to the federal states and municipalities: “Now the legal entities must show that they take responsibility for fair payment of artists and that culture is worth something to them.”