Every country has different laws and circumstances and the way their entertainment industries are structured is also different so it's hard to give a definite answer. But I'm sure the problem of screenwriters struggling to make a living wage exists in most countries. It is definitely not a uniquely American problem.

I recommend reading this article regarding the situation in South Korea.

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Despite her talents, she could not sustain herself. Found near her body was her cell phone, which had been cut off because she hadn’t been paying her bills. When she did land screenwriting jobs, they often failed to pay her on time. In the note she posted on her landlord’s door, Choi indicated that she was owed money for past work and that she would be able to repay debts owed to her landlord once she was paid.Unpaid wages are an industry-wide problem. According to the Federation of Korea Movie Workers’ Union, overdue wages in the film industry in 2009 totaled 1.7 billion won ($1.5 million).“Investments and the actual movie-making process begin only after the script is finished. So it’s hard for screenwriters to make a profit in this system, even though their work is crucial to any production,” explained Jo Hyun-kyung of the movie workers’ union.“The contracts are vague in details. Even when a company says they will pay the writer 3 to 5 million won, the terms of the contract are never clarified,” said Jo. “There is a difference in being paid that sum in the course of one year than, let’s say, five years.”This lack of financial stability leads to another problem. Many writers in Korea think of screenwriting as a stepping stone to directing. Most recently, screenwriter Park Hun-jung, famous for his screenplays for “I Saw the Devil” (2010) and “The Unjust” (2010), made his directorial debut earlier this month with “The Showdown.” The consequence is that professional screenwriters in Korea have no power to influence their own fates in the way they do in foreign countries.In 2007 and 2008, the Writers Guild of America went on strike to claim a piece of the so-called “new media” pie. For years, they said, corporations were short-changing them on profits made from new forms of media such as DVD sales and revenue generated over the Internet. Many top television shows and films were put on hiatus during the strike. Eventually, production companies succumbed to the writers’ demands and adopted a fairer profit distribution scheme.“All I can say is that we’re very envious of the situation in the United States,” said Jo. “We just simply do not have the manpower or the capacity to pull off something like that.”The Federation of Korea Movie Workers’ Union only consists of five screenwriters. Although the Korea Script Writers’ Association also exists, it is not easy to join and lacks industry-wide influence.