I Refuse to Pay my Dues
Let’s reject the tradition that newcomers in creative industries must work crazy hours without compensation or credit
By Haley
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Paying your dues is an out-of-date and backwards attitude found in many industries. In my field, graphic design, there is no lack of old timers who love to tell stories about the abuse they endured when they were young designers, almost relishing it like a badge earned. While in school, I would hear tale after tale of abusive bosses, long hours, and unpaid work from people I was supposed to emulate in my own career.
I decided in school that I would not pay my dues.
My first step was finding a paid internship, which I miraculously did. A professor recommended me for an internship at the school's marketing department. It paid minimum wage and gave me great experience that made my transition to my next job smoother. Where I live (Washington state) there are laws in place requiring that unpaid internships must remain educational and that the training is for the benefit of the trainee. Interns cannot perform job functions that would normally be paid. The last condition is that the business that provides the internship must not have “immediate advantage from the activities of the trainees, and may in fact be impeded.” I will tell you design agencies rarely followed these laws. Many of my peers' work was sold to clients while they remained unpaid interns with little to no training. Over the years I saw campaigns, websites, products, and even movie sets created by peers who were paid no wages while these agencies made thousands of dollars and even got awards off their work. Last time I checked, money and awards are of “immediate advantage” to the agencies.
Agencies are the most infamous for abusing young designers. An agency is different from an in-house design team in that they take on multiple brands as clients and they compete with other agencies to keep them. As a result the clients of agencies often get to override boundaries and push for tighter deadlines. I talked to many people from agencies about pulling all-nighters so their boss wouldn’t yell at them. These same agencies would lay them off and ruin their lives without a second thought. All of these stories of abuse were supposed to make me feel inspired, to think about the rush of the problem solved instead of the pain it took to get there. All I could focus on was seeing exploited young people who deserve better.
The thing about paying dues is eventually the people paying them get wise. I wasn’t the only one refusing to pay my dues. In my graduating class few people aspired to the agency track. Most of us instead wanted in-house jobs that would give us work-life balance. After a portfolio review I remember overhearing an old designer talking about how our class was weak and untalented for not wanting to work for an agency. Instead, I think we were strong and brave for knowing we deserved better than long hours with abusive bosses.
When I graduated, the design industry was booming with visual media on the rise. Companies had to compete for talent and the best were no longer going to agencies. They were going in-house at places like Google and Facebook, not going to places to work long hours with low pay and few benefits. I recognize there is a huge privilege in this, but I still believe industry newcomers anywhere shouldn’t have to pay dues.
Like most of my peers, I went in-house, aiming for that work-life balance and for the most part achieving it. When I started to get frustrated about my pay for the level of work I was doing, I confided in a mentor. I expected to be told to fight for what I wanted and to go elsewhere if I didn’t get it. Instead I heard this long-winded tale of how things were so much worse for them “back-in-the-day,” how they pulled all nighters for little pay and had to work bartending jobs to get by. They told me about interns being pitted against each other and abusive bosses who cared nothing for them. I heard about how I was so lucky for what I had.
I ignored that mentor who gave me that bad advice. Instead, I constantly highlighted and pushed forward the good work I did to higher-ups and learned to show the positive business numbers tied to my work. Eventually, I got the raise. Now, I’m advocating for my next one. My mentor had it wrong. I didn’t have to pay my dues. I didn’t have to endure the abuse passed down by so many bosses.
If I believed in hell, I’d believe there is a special place for bosses who abuse interns and newcomers the same way they were abused. The idea that you should put someone through the trauma that you lived through is unfathomable to me. What on earth makes you want to continue to make the world a terrible place like that? I can only believe it comes from a sad and small place where this little voice in their head told them they didn’t deserve better. To those bosses, you deserved better, I deserve better, and we ALL deserve better. I will ALWAYS refuse to pay my dues.
Editor: Phoebe Bates | Designer/Illustrator: Emma Geddes | Copy Editor: Katie Frankowicz | Communication/Support/Outreach: Meg Chellew
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