Money matters: making sure your freelancers get paid
Precarious work and unpredictable pay days is one of the big barriers for getting a truly diverse range of people working in this industry.
Everyone should be able to rely on getting paid fairly and on time for their work. But when a person doesn’t have the safety net of family wealth or a savings account for rainy days, it’s simply not an option to do work where timely payment can’t be guaranteed. This can be a particular problem for freelance workers, and the audio industry relies heavily on freelancers.
So if you’re from an organisation which hires freelance audio producers, we’ve created this list of four easy things you can do to help ensure your workplace is accessible for people who don’t have a financial safety net.
1. Onboard new workers into payroll systems as soon as possible
Each company has their own system for managing payroll, and sometimes these require on-boarding processes such as adding each freelancer as a new supplier. You should start any such processes as soon as you begin working with a person, so that your systems don’t cause any delays to someone getting paid.
Do everything in your power to ensure a freelancer will be able to submit their invoice as soon as they are due to do so.
2. Make sure freelancers know what to include on their invoices
If you need a freelancer’s invoice to include any additional information beyond the standard requirements, make sure this is communicated clearly to every freelancer. This could include purchase order numbers or other reference numbers, or it could be that you need the invoice addressed to a specific name or department. Make sure freelancers have easy access to all this information so they can submit a valid invoice the first time around.
If you receive an invoice which isn't valid for any reason - either because it’s missing a piece of standard information, or one of your own references - communicate that as soon as possible to the freelancer. If you leave it to them to chase once the payment becomes late, you risk that person having to survive without an income until a valid invoice is submitted (often restarting the clock on the 30 day payment window). When this happens, it can make it impossible for people to sustain a career in the industry.
3. Pay people on time
In the UK, freelance workers legally must be paid within 30 days of a valid invoice being received (see Government website for more information). Aside from it being a legal obligation to pay invoices on time, late payments are a major cause of inequality in the industry. When we pay people late for their work, it means the only people who can sustain freelance careers are those who have a financial safety net.
A good way to think of it is like this - if a permanent staff member’s salary didn’t land in their account at the end of the month, it’d generally be treated as an urgent problem to solve. The same level of seriousness should apply to freelancers getting their invoices paid within 30 days.
4. Check in to make sure freelancers aren’t having issues getting paid
Talking about money can be difficult. There’s no harm in proactively checking in with your freelancers to make sure they’re not having any trouble getting paid on time. Issues with freelancer payments often fall through the cracks between production teams and finance teams, and it can be awkward for freelance producers to bring up issues and get help.