1+ Plumbum,
Pretty basic salary, everyone in the studio makes the same amount except for Supervisors, Story board artists, and Art directors. Animation studios are starting to move towards salaries as it's more "fair" to everyone. What they use to do was pay you by the background, or key if your animating. This is good if your fast, as it lets you make a lot of money, but it has some downsides (people overwork themselves to make extra money, or just make enough to live if they're slower), it also motivates people to be too fast at times, and their quality of work suffers.
Overall, it's not hard to break into the industry, you just need to be lucky enough to live in a city with studios, or be willing to move around for work. They always need people and are willing to let you learn if you have the basic skills to do the work. (For example, my current Supervisor was an Art director at Ubisoft, the one studio he worked at had 3500 employees, they were always looking to hire new people, and very rarely laid anyone off). Above all else you need to be a likable person. You can be Picasso reincarnated, if you're an asshole no one will want to work with you, and you won't last long.
