I’m curious after seeing a lot of the interviews that were posted on youtube.com of some the TA’s at GDC, what an entry level TA could expect to negotiate in terms of compensation. Since the role is pretty unique I wonder if they pay you like an artist or a programmer. I also noticed that most people the were interviewed have been at their studio for a number of years. Has that allowed for growth over time? If you are a TA or TD it would be nice to hear from you. It would be cool to have an anonymous poll put up too but not sure if everyone would be comfortable with that.
Artists are typically paid less than Engineers, and unsurprisingly TA’s are somewhere in the middle. I can’t talk actual numbers, but take a look at the results of this search: game developer salary survey - Google Search
according to this job posting (http://tech-artists.org/forum/showthread.php?t=1557) you can expect 25k.
LOL.
No seriously. There usually is a pretty big ramp up for TA/TD salaries because often ‘riggers’ or an artist with minimal scripting ability will already call themselves TA/TD. And you shouldn’t expect to get paid significantly more then your average artist in those positions.
Once you become more of a critical part of the pipeline (like: write seriously time/money saving tools) or have skills that require lots of experience and technical understanding (heavy duty facial expert for example, or boost quality of the game/film somehow) then things start to ramp up towards programming salaries.
I started at ~45k and ended up at around ~110k until I started working for my own company. Then it dropped to more closely at ~45k again, LOL.
The change for me was from animator with some minimal technical abilities (like simple rigging and skinning) to building more unique c++ plugins and writing entire pipelines.
(Now I do the same for 45k…somewhere i must have made the wrong choice, lol)
This isn’t law or anything, but I interviewed with a studio and actually talked to a recruiter from the studio first. He asked me what I wanted and when I told him, he laughed - I was on the low end. He told me to be asking for between 50-55k. Again, this was all just from a conversation, but he worked at the parent company so take it for what it’s worth. (Bombed the interview (missed the call first by a ring), but learned from it and haven’t done so since.) 
[QUOTE=kees;9875]according to this job posting (http://tech-artists.org/forum/showthread.php?t=1557) you can expect 25k.
LOL.
[/QUOTE]
That is probably in British Pounds. 
So £25k is about $40k, and it’s the low end on that job.
I asked for £24k but the recruter gave me a much smaller number :s
I am going to keep an eye on this topic.
Smaller companies cannot always afford to pay decent salaries, and due to people not being able to move around the positions will eventually fill.
Also, from a business perspective a company will always try to pay as little as you will accept initially as any hire is a risk unless the applicant is particularly well known.
25k is about average for a first job as a TA. That can rise massively depending on experience and skill. With a few years under your belt, and proven production experience you can expect around £35-50k.
Those numbers can vary massively between countries, certainly across Europe. I have been to interviews where the employers have seemed really interested but simply wouldn’t pay that kind of money, other places those numbers are normal.
It’s a balance of how much you want to work at a particular studio, and how much they want/trust you for the job. Offer higher, as they’ll always offer slightly lower!
As a TA with about 5-6 years art experience I started out at around 67K US. Then I ramped quickly from there.
I have TA friends who make 30K more than me, and I have some with more exp and ability who make much less.
It’s all about how you sell yourself and who you choose to work for.