Breadcrumb Pay

Bula Catalysts, I remember taking Graphic design back in the year 2011 when it was just starting out and there weren't many positions available. If there were, we got really bad pay. We learnt everything from illustrator, photography, fashion design all the way to producing the end product.

Now that Graphic design has become so popular that the market has become so saturated with entry level designers and most are asking what is the future of graphic design? because of the new JOB DESCRIPTION IN PLAY. Graphic design has become such a wide spectrum right now where most designers are a jack of all trades and most companies take advantage of that. Most companies are starting to stitch other professions with graphic design.

Most of these companies pay minimum wage and say that it's ok because they are straight out of "UNI" or they think that graphic design is a secondary job title, like graphic design is not important. Graphic design is being watered down to the level where it has become a secondary title or worse we are just the guys or girls that create posters and flyers. We have seen it in most job descriptions, in the fine print it will read a bit of graphic design knowledge will be an advantage, will be a plus or you must know photoshop and illustrator. Even worse, it would write Role: Graphic Designer needed with or Graphic designer/ web designer or Digital marketer/Graphic designer, description: must know illustrator, photoshop and InDesign or Corel draw, must know a bit of photography or video, must know how to look after social media platforms, a little bit of web design would be good for updating websites, must know a bit of social media marketing, must be able to work under pressure and meet deadlines, the list goes on and on. This would be a normal Job Descript for a Graphic designer these days. With designers doing all those things which are meant to be done by other professions, timelines get shorter and deadlines are way to short due to the multiply job description under ones J.D and yet companies can't pay a decent salary for doing all of these different roles.

But wait, the other part about all of this is the designers themselves are crashing the market and it isn't their fault. Families need to eat and people are looking for money so they will accept any job title that comes their way and do all those job titles for breadcrumb pay. Totally understandable but where do we draw the line? which leads me to my question below.

My question is, is it the companies duty to pay for more if they want these different roles in the position they seek or is it the designers who should ask for more pay due to the different roles needed? it would be a great topic for debate.