The Good Work Review

23 February 2023

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Authors:

Heather Carey, 

Heather Carey

Director of Work Advance

Heather Carey is Director of Work Advance, where s...

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Lesley Giles, 

Lesley Giles

Director of Work Advance

Lesley Giles is Director of Work Advance, where sh...

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​Professor Dave O’Brien

​Professor Dave O’Brien

Professor of Cultural and Creative Industries at The School of Arts, Languages and Cultures at The University of Manchester

Dr Dave O’Brien is Chancellor's Fellow in Cultural...

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The Good Work Review is the first examination of job quality across the entire creative industries. The Review is based on 40 separate indicators, from evidence submitted by 120 organisations, and focuses on issues including fair pay, flexible working, paid overtime and employee representation.

Following a call for evidence, 120 organisations from across the UK, and representing a wide range of creative sectors, contributed their expertise to the Review. These experts and creative representatives called for industry and government to invest in people, skills, diversity and well-being if the UK is to remain a creative powerhouse.

The Review also found that people working in the Creative Industries tended to have higher job satisfaction than workers in other sectors, could work more flexibly, and found their work to be an outlet for their creative passion.

However, the Review also found that there was lower than average pay in some sectors, long hours, evidence for poor workplace culture, and unequal access to the creative industries, with many people needing to work for free to get a foot in the door.

On this page you can download:

Executive Summary: Job Quality in the Creative Industries

Job Quality in the Creative Industries: The final report from the Creative PEC’s Good Work Review

A quantitative baseline of job quality in the Creative Industries: Working Paper 1 from the Creative PEC’s Good Work Review

Call for Evidence: Key Messages: Working Paper 2 from the Creative PEC’s Good Work Review

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    The Review was led by Heather Carey and Lesley Giles (Work Advance) and Dave O’Brien (University of Sheffield) for the PEC, and funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council, and Department for Culture, Media and Sport.