UK studio Chucklefish bumps wages to help offset cost of living crisis

UK developer Chucklefish is growing wages by £4,000 ($4500) to assist workers address the continuing value of residing disaster.

Chucklefish comms supervisor Alexis Belief broke the news on Twitter, and stated the wage bump is a company-wide initiative that follows a ten p.c wage improve that was issued in April 2022.

The transfer goals to (partially) offset the hovering value of residing within the UK, with surging power costs, rising inflation, bumper meals payments, and stagnating pay leaving many struggling to make ends meet.

Providing extra background on the present make-up of Chucklefish, Belief defined the corporate is a majority ladies studio — with ladies presently accounting for round 60 p.c of all staff — that pivoted to a four-day work week with no pay lower nearly a yr in the past.

Belief stated the change to a four-day week has been “extremely profitable,” which tracks with what we heard final yr after we spoke to a number of developers about the impact of shorter weeks, and that Chucklefish additionally has a “no-crunch coverage.”

“I solely share this partially as a humble(ish)brag, however largely as a result of I’ve seen it work, I do know it is attainable, and I do know we need not grind ourselves into mud to create artwork,” stated Belief. “This staff is proficient and passionate. Do not let some fossil inform you that it’s essential crunch to care.”

These feedback comes simply days after The Callisto Protocol director appeared to promote crunch on social media, earlier than swiftly backtracking.

Though it looks like Chucklefish is in a superb place for the time being, the studio has beforehand been accused of using unpaid labor when engaged on Starbound.

The UK firm is maybe finest know, nevertheless, for its work on Stardew Valley, which got here to an finish in March this yr when Chucklefish handed back the majority of publishing duties over to developer ConcernedApe.