Tracing animator’s drawings onto clear sheets of acetate in pen and ink and painting them on the reverse side is one of the least creative, more tedious parts of the animation production process (one that is today increasingly done by computers). During the Depression, it was a skill that paid the “girls” who did it considerably less than the manly task of animation, layout, and story. Top animators at Disney in the late 1930s (all males) earned $300 plus per week, while ink and paint salaries ranged from “$18 to $75 per week, [and] would be higher,” said a 1941 Glamour magazine in classic blame-the-victim style, “if more girls didn’t work a couple of years, marry and quit.”
| 1930s Annual Salary | Adjusted 2013 Dollars | |
|---|---|---|
| Animator | $15,600 | $266,000 |
| Ink and Paint | $3,900 | $66,578 |
That’s a 300% difference between the salaries. Of course, there are no long any ink and paint personnel.
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