Authors' earnings

According to a report, Canadian authors' earnings (or lack thereof):

• Authors earned $32,000 on average in 2005. This was second only to “Producers, directors, choreographers, etc.” (who pulled in $43,800). The overall labour force earned $36,300, and the cultural sector labour force earned $32,900. The lowest-paid artists were visual artists and dancers, both of whom earned, on average, less than $14,000.
• Authors were the second-largest field surveyed in terms of numbers, representing 18% of all artists. Musicians and singers had the largest ranks with 24%.
• Eleven percent of authors reported no earnings in 2005.
• Fifty-four percent of authors are female, almost perfectly in line with the percentage across all artistic fields (53%) and slightly higher than the overall labour force (48%). Male authors earned $34,000 on average, while female ones earned only $30,400.
• Forty-one percent of authors were self-employed; the rest were “paid workers.” Self-employed authors earned only $21,400, while the paid workers earned $39,700.
• There were 24,600 authors in the 2006 census, up from 21,100 in 2001 and 15,200 in 1991. Average earnings are dropping, though: authors earned $36,500 in 1990, $35,800 in 2000, and $32,000 in 2005.