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Fees paid to touring personnel vary a lot and people tend to be a bit secretive about what they get paid but below are some guidelines as to what you can expect. Of course there are many crew people who get considerably more than and many who get a lot less.
Wages have not generally gone up in line with inflation and are in many cases still about the same as they were in the mid '90s. Also in the “current economic climate” there is even more pressure to keep wages down. However it’s a great life as they say and you get to see the world or at least the back of a lot of trucks and smelly gigs.
This is due to several factors;
There are always people who will do the job cheaper as a means of getting into what is perceived as a glamorous industry.
If it is a loss making tour supported by a record company there may well be budgetary pressure to use cheaper/ less experienced crew.
The same pressure may well be applied by management/accountants.
Although lip service is paid to the importance of building up and training a skilled workforce of tour support staff this does not necessarily extend to paying them well. In many cases there are sound and other technicians on tours who are not really good enough but are employed because they are cheap.
Nearly all crew are self employed and therefore have no employee rights or job security and are responsible for paying (or not) their own income tax and national insurance contributions. In addition to fees and wages crew are usually paid a per diem (per day) allowance “pds” for subsistence whilst away from home. This is from £5.00 per day for a hard up band to £20.00 or £30.00 in particularly expensive countries. There are however acts who refuse to pay per diems, this can always be guaranteed to endear band and management to their crew. Another practice, which is equally unpopular, is paying half fees or in some cases no fees for travel days. On long tours crew will be employed for the duration of the tour and the daily rate will alter to take into account gaps between legs of the tour.
Baby bands;
A band starting out will at first probably pay a mate to look after backline, mix the sound for them for whatever they can afford, generally paying them the odd £10.00 or £20.00 from the band’s gig money before the band take anything for themselves. As the act gets more successful, travelling in a decent splitter, twin rooms in Travelodges filling 500 capacity venues, they would be paying around £100.00 per day for a backline person and around £150.00 per day for a sound person or tour manger with maybe an extra tenner or twenty if the person was doubling up, tour manager(TM) mixing front of house (FOH) say. In addition, when the band get to the “Travelodge” level everyone, band and crew would get a per diem of £10.00-£15.00
Mid level;
For an act playing the larger colleges and city halls possibly carrying their own production the rates would go up to £150-£175.00 per day for a backline person, £175.00-£250.00 for a sound person and £200-£250.00 for a tour manager with a per diem of £15.00-£20.00. Also if the act is carrying production they will also be carrying catering, which would mean 3 meals a day on show days.
Arena acts;
The rates go up to £200.00 or so for a backline and £300.00 for a TM. There are crew earning more but rates over £300.00 per day are pretty rare.
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