The Average Salary of a Movie Makeup Artist
Movie makeup artists help movie stars look their best for their on-camera acting performances. The Bureau of Labor Statistics indicates that 2,240 theatrical and performance makeup artists were employed in the United States in 2010. Of these, only 780 worked in the motion picture and movie industry. Salaries for these movie makeup artists were the highest of all makeup artists in the theatrical and performance industry.
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Average Salary
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Movie and video makeup artists earned an average salary of $80,250 per year, as of May 2010, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. This salary was nearly $30,000 higher than the average salary for all theatrical and performance artists nationwide in all different areas of specialization. The bureau notes that all makeup artists averaged $50,980 in annual salaries in 2010. Only performing arts companies paid makeup artists salaries close to movie makeup artists, at an average rate of $63,040 per year.
Pay Scale
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Makeup artists earned salaries that typically ranged from $17,740 per year to more than $102,450 on an annual basis, as of 2010, according to the BLS. The bureau indicates that makeup artists made a median salary of $38,130 per year, while those comprising the middle half of the pay scale earned salaries that ranged from $22,200 per year to $74,160 on an annual basis.
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Location
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Where the movie makeup artist works also determines, to some extent, how much she is paid. The highest-paid artists worked in the states of New York and California where the movie industry is most active. Those employed in California brought home an average annual salary of $75,870, while New York makeup artists brought in an average of $77,420 on an annual basis. Ohio makeup artists earned only $42,860 per year, by comparison.
Job Outlook
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The overall job forecast for those working as makeup artists appears to be favorable, according to projections made by the Bureau of Labor Statistics for the decade from 2008 to 2018. The bureau indicates that the number of jobs in this field should grow by some 17 percent during this time frame. The rise in demand for American-made movies abroad is expected to spur growth in the movie industry in general.
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References
- Photo Credit Siri Stafford/Digital Vision/Getty Images
