The Federal Statistical Office reports on the living situation of cultural workers. A third earn less than 1,500 euros per month.
The last comprehensive study by the Federal Statistical Office on the living situation of employees in the cultural sector dates from 2021. This is from a time in which, due to corona, theaters, concert halls and museums were closed and many cultural workers therefore feared for their existence. Last Tuesday, five years later, the Federal Statistical Office presented a special evaluation for the first time. It immediately becomes clear: the pandemic is over, but the precarious conditions for the majority of people are Employees in the cultural sector but have remained.
Low incomes are even more widespread in the cultural sector, as the report shows. A third of employees earned less than 1,500 euros net per month in 2024, which is well below the national average. In other sectors, this only affects around a quarter of the workforce. And this despite the fact that more people are working in the cultural sector again, around 1.3 million last year. It seems to have become an art to be able to make a living from art alone.
The situation is particularly precarious in the visual arts, where, according to statistics, low incomes are particularly widespread. A survey by the Federal Association of Visual Artists (BBK) from September 2025 shows: For most people, the income from artistic work is hardly enough to live on, let alone for reserves in the event of illness or for adequate retirement provision.
Falling out of the artists’ social security fund
Around a third of cultural workers finance themselves at least partially from sources other than their own art, and 80 percent are dissatisfied with their income. Financial insecurity is by far the biggest challenge for artists, with some earning so little that they fall out of the artists’ social security fund. If they even manage to stay active in the area.
Drastic Savings in cultural budgets over the past few years are contributing to this fatal development; they are driving self-employed people and those in the independent scene in particular to the limits of their existence and below. Or force them to look for another job. If precarious working conditions become the norm, the creative scene will bleed dry in the long term.
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