Visual FX Digital Artists Guild

VFX Soldier posted a very informative analysis of union benefits and how organizing might actually be a more economical model for providing benefits to their employees.

Read more here: http://vfxsoldier.wordpress.com/2010/08/04/could-unionization-save-vfx-facilities/

Here’s an excerpt:

So how much would organization actually cost? Well according to sources in the IATSE, the national labor organization that The Animation Guild is a part of, a guild employer would have to pay the following for each worker:

• about $4 per hour worked plus about a 6% contribution into the IAP (Individual Account Plan).

I estimate the IAP contribution to be about $6000 a year. If you want to see how that number is calculated go here but lets make an assumption and calculate the amount based on an artist’s salary.

• Assume an artist works 40 hours per week for a total of 2080 hours a year.
• Assume that artist makes $48 an hour for a nice even salary total of about $100,000 per year.

The total amount an employer would probably have to pay to the guild would calculate to be about $14,500 per year. (*Correction – this amount isn’t paid to the guild, it is paid into the health and pension benefits. The only money paid to the guild are the dues paid by workers.) That’s far less than the national average of 30% employers pay to administer benefits.