IATSE’s 2023 Gameworkers.org Rates and Conditions survey showed that most respondents said they worked an average of 40 hours a week, but a quarter of people who answered said they worked for 41 hours or more.
The longest reported average was 95 hours a week.
Over half (58%) of respondents said they were paid with an annual salary, and 26.4% worked under hourly pay. Many salaried developers reported issues with overtime pay, with some claiming they were “exempt”.
It’s disappointing to see this is still the normal state of things for developers, and not the rare exception.
The IATSE discussing unionization is good, actually unionizing is even better. Although, I’m not sure how much unionization would actually do to curb crunch culture. It will obviously help on some level, but with the idea of crunching so ingrained in the industry, I feel like it will take a while for anything to change.
I think if the union negotiated no more overtime exempt positions and strict limits on the amount of allowed OT, that would go a long way. Places like DigiPen also need to stop teaching crunch culture