As of the beginning of this month (1 July 2023) if you were born after 1 January 1957, the age at which you can apply for the Australian Age Pension is now 67 and retire (marking an increase from those born earlier who can apply between 65 or 66-and-a-half years).
It is a year on from the State Pension age in the UK, which is currently 66 years old for both men and women. However, like Australia, it will start gradually increasing again from 6 May 2026. So what are the implications, looking forward?
But 67 is still baby years in an artist’s career trajectory, right? Evidently, that depends who you are, who’s asking and why.
The fact is, if you’re a working artist, there are very few rules for when to hang up your tools, and some would argue that being an artist is one of the few careers from which you’d never want to retire at all.
Also, how many famous artists can you think of whose legacy is built on the masterpieces they produced in their “late period”?
Read: When you’ve still got it at 100: Q&A with artist Guy Warren (from 2021)
But from a financial perspective, we all know that artists’ earnings ebb and flow much like a volatile stock market, with huge risk and very little stability. So, when and how can artists safely retire?
What does retirement look like in 2023 and beyond?
It has become increasingly apparent that the nature of everyone’s work lives – across all sections of the economy – is radically shifting.
We now have more working from home options and more flexible hours, and the proportion of older workers in the workforce is rising as developed economies see their populations age.
For these reasons and more, many older workers are rethinking their retirements. Some are choosing to stay at work longer, while others are in part-time, semi-retirement routines, thanks to newly diverse work environments.
But do artists and arts workers have that same level of autonomy and flexibility when it comes to their own retirement plans?
Ticking time bomb: the worrying state of artists’ superannuation
Executive Director of NAVA (National Association for the Visual Arts) Penelope Benton believes one of the most concerning aspects of the retirement conversation for artists right now is the lack of superannuation they are able to accumulate over their working lives. (Incidentally, superannuation was also raised by the Australian Government on 1 July. Employers must now pay their workers 11% superannuation – an increase from the previous rate of 10%.)
Regarding super payments for artists, Benton tells ArtsHub, ‘Unlike other areas of the arts, such as the live performance sector, which is covered by an Award, the visual arts is not as well-regulated when it comes to certain employee working conditions, and that includes employers’ obligations to pay artists superannuation.’
Read: Rise in the cost of living impacting artists
Benton explains that, for a number of years, NAVA has been calling for changes to the Superannuation Guarantee Act, which NAVA believes is limiting artists’ ability to access fair pay. ‘At the moment there are grey areas in the [Superannuation Guarantee] Act that have created confusion for employers about when artists are eligible to be paid super,’ she says.
Evidently, as outlined in the current Act – specifically under section 12 (8) (a), and paragraphs 84 and 87 of Superannuation Guarantee Ruling 2005/1 – the roles and duties of visual artists are not completely included.
The Act states that only those who are ‘paid to perform or present, or to participate in the performance or presentation of any music, play, dance, entertainment, sport, display or promotional activity … is an employee of the person liable to make the payment’.
Benton says this wording omits visual artists’ scope of work in its definition, which covers only those artists who “perform” their work to the public.
‘NAVA would like to change the word “display” in clause 12 (8) (a) to “exhibition”, to acknowledge the making of the artwork and other activity that visual artists undertake when presenting an exhibition,’ Benton says.
‘This will help clarify things for employers and mean visual artists will be acknowledged as eligible for superannuation payments in the same way as their peers in the performing arts,’ she explains.
No savings, no partner support = no retirement
Added to this picture are some concerning statistics around the other means that artists may have at their disposal to help them safely retire. These may include their personal savings, maturing financial investments or support from a life partner.
When arts economist and researcher David Throsby and his team surveyed artists in 2009, they found only 14% of them had these kinds of personal arrangements in place to ensure they could safely retire.
But even more concerning is that when Throsby surveyed again in 2016, the percentage of artists in this “I feel safe to retire” category had dropped to 5%.
‘That means about 95% of artists haven’t got the means to plan a secure retirement,’ Benton says. ‘This is even more evidence that the chronic underpayment of artists over their working lives has very serious consequences.’
A second career as an artist on the flip side of 60?
These are indeed worrying trends. But on the other side of the coin, Benton says there is also strong evidence that some people have traditionally chosen to become artists later in life, and this pathway is often a fruitful second career option.
‘These second-career artists set themselves up first, and then launch [as an artist] when they are in a more financially secure position to do so,’ Benton says.
‘It’s also the case that the average working age of artists in Australia is 52 years and 54 years for craft practitioners,’ she continues. This compares to the national average working age of 37 years.
Read: Office workers by day, artists by night
Perhaps the most famous late-starter artist is the late Emily Kame Kngwarreye (who died in 1996, aged 85). Kngwarreye began painting on canvas only in the final eight years of her life (from the age of 77) long after many would have chosen to retire and, as we all know, those eight years of painting resulted in some of the most powerful works of Australian art of that era.
Other older artists who are still going strong include Elisabeth Cummings (aged 89) whose latest solo show Radiance: the art of Elisabeth Cummings, opens next month at the National Arts School. There’s also the indefatigable Guy Warren, who is still a successful practising artist at the age of 102.
So, are artists a special case, in that there’s no such thing as a conventional retirement age nor a phase of life where one stops making art?
For many, the answer to that question is that being artist is an endless journey into the unknown and, in this way, the practice never stops.
But as Benton observes, artists’ work is no different from any other in terms of workers’ right to safe and fair working conditions.
‘Especially for professional artists embarking on their careers from university graduate age – they deserve better,’ Benton says.
‘Their lack of access to superannuation is one of our biggest concerns, as is the lack of funding for our visual arts and craft institutions more broadly,’ she continues.
‘Government funded arts institutions are major employers of artists and arts workers. If their funding is insufficient to pay people properly, that contributes hugely to artists’ precarious retirement prospects,’ she concludes.
