This is a really interesting thread - I am a newbie performer (my first gig is in March - unpaid), but as a day job I am an events organiser and publicist.
I do think that for newbies doing things free to get their foot in the door, and even to get experience of performing to an audience, can be good experience. I used to act when I was younger, but haven't performed to an audience for over ten years, and I wasn't getting naked back then either, so I am more than happy to do my share of free gigs for the experience. Though definitely travel expenses should be covered. I would hope that if I am considered any good I would start to be able to get some reasonable pay, but doubt it would ever cover the costs I have already laid out on costumes. And I think people are right to suggest that newbies need to have a better understanding of this. I know someone who told me she wanted to get into burlesque for the money and I laughed very hard before giving her a reality check. I haven't even done my first gig yet and I have already laid out loads of cash on classes, workshops, costumes, you name it!
I also agree that there needs to be an education of newbie event organisers, and it's right to imagine that this (along with the recession?) has had an effect on when/if performers are paid).
In my day job things are a little different, in regards to the sort of events I organise. I deal on a daily basis with artists, authors, musicians and various other types of performer and very much on an individual basis. For example I wouldn't pay the same to a local poet trying to increase their profile, as I would to a world class musician. I have also worked with lots of people who I have asked to work for free/experience. But only in cases where this is fact. For example we often have small events at which it is nice to have some background music, and so I may book a local musician/s to play a couple of sets - for which they will have travel expenses paid, food/drink, and the opportunity to network and hand out publicity materials. In fact many such performers I have worked with have been subsequently booked by people who knew them from our events.
In the main I have two ways of working out pay. If we have funding for an event, either through a sponsor, grant or internally, then I might negotiate a fee for the author/artist/musician/etc, but if not then it is completely down to ticket sales. As such we would split the ticket sales accordingly and I would usually pay travel expenses on top of that. So although we make money from our events, often the performer makes more than us, and is certainly never out of pocket.
Splitting ticket sales is a great option, but can have it's drawbacks which newbie organisers might not consider, and thus be left unable to pay what they had promised. Firstly, splitting sales is fine if you are paying one person - when there are more involved then that means less of a cut for everyone, or raising ticket prices to compensate. And then of course you are risking raising prices too high for people to pay. Which essentially translates as the bigger the bill, the more audience/ticket capacity you need (as well as the ability to get bums in all those seats). A bigger venue means more publicity to fill seats, as you can't rely on your mates to make up the entire audience, and some organisers I have seen fail at even using free online advertising. And even printing posters/leaflets costs money, so this becomes another drain on the finances. And as others have pointed out, you can then have a big half empty venue, rubbish publicity, minimal acts that will work either free or cheap (either few performers, or alternatively a reverse newbie slot, where instead of having headliners and then a newbie slot or two, it's all newbies and the occasional headliner), and in the end a rubbish night for everyone involved.
These are things that many newbie event organisers (not just in the burly world) fail to consider and end up making a huge loss or not being able to pay participants, etc.
It makes me sad
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