SheStillWorks Hard for the Money: Composers, Precarious Work, and the Gender Pay Gap

Abstract

Music composers exemplify precarious work: they historically have been freelancers and have relied on multiple jobs to subsidize their creative work. We focus here on the gender pay gap amidst such precariousness—heeding their income earned solely from composition and from the totality of jobs recently held. There is no gender pay gap when it comes to income earned from composition but there is a significant gap for income earned from all jobs, showing that women composers face relative disadvantage in subsidizing their creative work. We also find that men and women composers experience different and racialized returns to their capitals and career positioning when navigating precarious work. These findings have lessons for multiple literatures—including those on the new sociology of work and on creative careers.