Life in Animation/Gaming Industry

It's not the salaries that are the real factor, but the amount of work one gets. And the talent one has.

You could land TV storyboard work for $12,000-$14,000 a show, do it in 5-6 weeks--making $2,000 a week.  And you might be assigned only one in 6 months.

Now, work is a USUALLY a bit more steady than that, but it can also be cyclic/seasonal. Because of production timelines you may work only six months of the year, but make enough--with some careful saving, to live on for the remaining 6 months.  You may also have enough smaller paying jobs, spread out over a longer period of time---say......$750 a week.  If you have a two-income household, then you can live comfortably enough without much struggling.

And then there's the biggest factor.....one's talent.  You really need to be above that plateau where your work is good enough to get you more work. The higher above that plateau you are,  the more in-demand you'll be and the more work that can be expected to come your way.

Can you expect to work year-round?? It depends on your talent, the number of production studios in your area ( or who will work with you from a distance), and the numbers and types of productions underway or upcoming at any given time.
Can you make a decent wage. It depends on the studio. A larger more established studio will tend to have the clout in signing a deal for a show to pay people a reasonable wage.  A smaller studio might low-ball on the deal just to get the work in their door, and thus offer a cut-rate on the jobs.  It can mean a pay-rate that is 50% LESS than a larger studio.
The other factor can be political.
Film tax credits in your area can affect whether or not productions seat in your area at all, because they can factor greatly into the profit margins for a given show.
Of late, numerous jurisdictions  and politicians seem to have this ignorant zeal in eliminating such credits because they simply do not understand the film industry.
Oh, they understand it makes money, plainly enough........but they don't grasp how THEY can make money at it, and are often shut out of it. Which means that when it comes time to govern things like tax credits, they'll turn their backs on the industry for purely petty reasons ( which they'll couch, instead, in "political reasoning".  It can happen ANYWHERE.

If you last around 10 years in the biz.......does it change, do you earn more?  Once again, it depends.  This is where YOU come into play. Your talent level, your reputation, your connections.  In my 30 years in the biz--25yr as a storyboard artist--I've seen and worked for rates all across the board.  I've seen rates for a 22 minute TV storyboard go as high as $25,000 per episode, and drop down as low as $3000.  I am considered a "senior" artist, experienced and largely trusted to deliver good, usable entertaining work....and I can do that.  But the rates I get are whatever the studio offers me. If it's just too low, I sometimes do not take the job. If it's really good, I might only get ( or take on) just one episode because of the challenges in getting the work done on time.
If you have a rep for delivering, you might be able to wrangle a deal better than the "other guys" get, simply because you deliver to justify that.  but you'd better deliver something BEYOND the norm, in that case.|

If you are chummy with the studio owners, you can be fed constant work, and better rates---again, if you deliver. If you keep expanding your skill-set(s) and are tasked with increasing responsibilities on productions, your income will increase.  Finally, if you take the gamble to open and run your own studio for a period of time, your income can be very susbtantial----IF the studio survives and thrives in the business arena.

On LA studios.........bear in mind that the animation union presence in the LA area affects what studios can and cannot hire in terms of non-union talent.  It adds another layer of complexity to a career starting in animation that.........honestly, I've never had to deal with personally. On this matter I cannot effectively speak on or offer advice.