Key Findings

1. Chicago’s creative workers earn less than comparable workers in other occupations.

After adjusting for demographics creative workers earn approximately $12,300 less in annual wages than non-creative workers with similar backgrounds.

Including additional income sources — such as self-employment, grants, and household income — widens this gap, indicating that side jobs and household income pooling do not offset lower earnings from creative work. 

2. Creative work is more flexible and more precarious.

Creative workers are 20 percentage points more likely to be self-employed and 3 percentage points more likely to be unemployed than comparable workers.

Employment among creative workers fluctuated more during the COVID‑19 pandemic, and they were more likely to work remotely. Creative workers are 1.7 percentage points less likely to have health insurance and 1 percentage point more likely to receive public assistance.

3. Chicago’s creative workers earn less than peers in other major cities and are more likely to leave the state.

Creative workers in Chicago earn less than those in Atlanta, Houston, and Los Angeles. However, Chicago creative workers have lower unemployment rates than those in peer cities. Illinois sees higher net out-migration of creative workers than Georgia, Texas, or California.

Findings presented here use the report’s “narrow” definition of creative workers, which includes occupations recommended by the National Endowment for the Arts. Contact us to request the full report for additional analysis.

Download the Executive Summary

The full report is available upon request.