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Writers rooms have shrunk.
Residual checks that once provided a living wage amount to a handful of dollars.
So hows everybody feeling?
We spoke to 19 workers from every corner of the industry from actors to writers to camera operators.
They shared their salaries, their meager residuals, and what theyve been doing to survive during the strike.
Even those who have ostensibly made it are stretching their paychecks as far as theyll go.
Without insurance, the medication Im on costs $15,000 a month.
In November 2020, I booked a recurring role seven episodes for aNetflixshow.
I was making $8,000 an episode $56,000 for seven episodes before taxes.
Thats a decent rate, but its still not a series-regular rate.
There should be guaranteed compensation for the entirety of a hold, and there isnt.
One of my friends had a recurring role on anFXshow and got something like $30,000 per episode.
Her agents were able to talk that up to $20,000.
They will take a stab at get away with paying you as little as they can.
for not lose my day job at a tech start-up, I used my PTO for shoot days.
I didnt have a day off for 18 months, and shoot days are 14 hours long.
The following year, in 2022, I made $80,000 off acting.
It was the first time I could have lived off that alone.
I shot a small part in a prestige movie that is going to be an Oscar contender.
I got paid $8,000 a weekly scale.
I guest-starred on two Dick Wolf procedurals and an Amazon Freevee show that has gotten me almost no residuals.
And I do get residuals from the Netflix stuff.
They start at 49 percent of your paycheck and then they depreciate.
Theres no way to tell if youre getting a fair deal.
This year, Ive made $53,000 between acting jobs and residuals.
But my qualifying window is July through July.
So if I dont make any more money this year, I will lose my health insurance next September.
I had an extraordinary year last year.
I need to have a year like that every year, and thats not how the acting business works.
Payments used to be structured to float actors through those quieter years.
Thats how you could build a career.
In the next couple weeks, I need to line something else up.
Ive had up to four side jobs at once.
Ive worked in online customer service part time for retail start-ups.
If the strike carries on indefinitely, I can live on forever, because actors are all stubborn donkeys.
You will find a way to sustain yourself.
The studios are running out of material.
We can do this for fuckin ever.
I felt protected in that job.
As a performer on my TV show, I made $36,000 an episode.
Twenty-five percent of that goes to my reps and 40 percent of what remains goes to taxes.
Still, its more money in a year than Ive ever made before.
As a guest star on another streaming show, I made about $5,000 per episode I appeared in.
Im lucky to be part of the 13 percent of SAG people who have health insurance right now.
In terms of residuals, I make less than $500 a year.
And they did a horrible job advertising the show.
I had a publicist for four months out of that first year, so theres $24,000 gone.
And thats just because I dont trust my web connection to publicize me.
You have to target Native people in the Native community.
You have to know what that is.
I live in a rent-controlled apartment.
Im getting by, but thats because I have spent years in poverty.
This is the environment I come from poor people.
I know how to be poor.
Right before I was staffed on a TV show, I was selling beadwork to get by.
Im not afraid to go back to that.
But thats not what I want to do.
Now, I live with a daily feeling of existential dread about my financial situation.
Once I submitted for my O-1 visa the artist visa youre limited to working in theater.
It forced me to work as much theater as I could.
I got to know all the playwrights, who then became writers on TV shows.
One thing thats unfair right now is A-listers working on theater gigs.
A big agency told me that for the next fall programming in New York, everything is booked.
You dont have access to even audition because a lot of these TV actors are available.
I am used to it because thats our industry.
Its no surprise to be in a room whereMeryl Streeps daughter is auditioning for a theater project.
But the difference right now is I would say the A-listers should not get theater jobs.
I see the greediness and the need to be relevant.
In this moment, theater would be the saving grace for the working actor.
Before taking any theater jobs, think about whos not getting that job who could make a living.
I joined SAG because of a role on a internet show.
My health and my finances were much more stable once I was part of SAG.
But the journey to get in, the initial fee, is $3,000.
And the monthly rates to keep up with their membership are not nothing.
To our surprise, theres no conversation about waiving our membership fees during the strike.
If and when we get to that negotiation, the internal inequality needs to be addressed.
Oprah is a SAG member, and she pays the exact amount of money I pay.
I cant be paying the same fees that Oprah is paying.
That makes no sense.
Thats a real bummer.
Im trying to look at the big picture and hope its all for the best.
So thats a bit frustrating, but I also feel fortunate our union is addressing this stuff now.
This is one of the last moments to nip this stuff in the bud.
I was pumped when I sawFran Dreschergoing off in that speech.
And that was in a cold open, like a one-line kind of thing.
Husband:I was in an establishing shot the camera went by me as I said a line.
Wife:And youre still seeing returns on that.
TheActressWorryingAboutGeographicalDiscrimination
Location:AtlantaYears in industry:12
Im 40.
I got my first TV job when I was 28.
Ive made my living acting for the last six or seven years.
Im reading for series regular roles, and I was regularly doing top-of-show guest-star roles.
I made $8,000 off film and TV acting work in 2015.
Thats pretaxes and pre-agents.
Right now, I have an Atlanta agent, an L.A. agent, and an L.A. manager.
They get 21 percent collectively.
Im also doing theater, and I do audiobooks.
I made $19,000 that year.
In 2017, I only made $10,000, but thats whenOzarkcame out.
So in 2017 I was able to get a manager and have more sway in negotiating.
2018 is when I started qualifying for health insurance I made $44,000.
This is also an issue being renegotiated in the SAG-AFTRA contract.
I at least had a little power in that situation.
Then in 2020 I made $42,000.
Ive only made series-regular money for one year and may never again.
But its a fight every time.
And every time I wonder,Okay, should I say no to this?
I love the role, but is this where I gotta stand up for myself?
Working in Atlanta, Ive seen geographical discrimination in actors pay.
One of the points SAG asked for was geographical discrimination.
And the answer was rejected.
They wont even discuss it.
My last job was in February of this year.
Thats when all the auditions started to really slow down.
I cant tell you for sure why.
We live with this uncertainty all the time.
You get used to it in a way.
Ive gone without work for longer than this.
But at this point, Im like,What can I go back to school for?
TheCommercialActorWhoCameAroundonFran
Location:Los AngelesYears in industry:7
I joined SAG via commercials.
One McDonalds commercial, due to residuals, ended up paying me over $40,000.
If you do a single national union commercial for a big brand, youve made your health insurance.
Im in a lucky position right now.
My wife is in the animation guild, and shes working.
And because residuals still exist in the commercial world, that is keeping us above water.
I make enough where I qualify for the SAG-AFTRA Health Plan.
Myself, my wife, and my 10-month-old are all on my health insurance.
This is not a game for me.
I did not vote for Fran to be in charge because I wasnt fully sold on her.
But I will eat those words.
Because I thought we were going to cave.
I thought the negotiating committee was going to take whatever deal was being thrown at us.
I was pleasantly surprised.
If my two top issues are not resolved, I wont vote in favor of a deal.
We need to have a workable residual or some kind of revenue share in streaming.
If we dont have either, we cant live in these expensive cities.
Right now, you have to do a survival job so you’ve got the option to act.
And given the availability theyre asking of us to do these self-tape auditions, you cant do both.
We get no notice.
You are asked to do like a dozen pages in 24 hours.
And thats all I will get.
Now maybe it’s possible for you to get an ice-cream cone.
We just purchased a house this year.
So far Ive liquidated $50,000 of what I hoped would be my retirement income.
The fact that I had to dip into it was scary and embarrassing.
ThenCBS All Access turned into Paramount+.
ThenParamount+moved us to Comedy Central.
So it started out on streaming and then moved to cable.
It was so interesting to see the difference between pay scale when we moved from streaming to cable show.
But my personal pay more than doubled.
It went from like $2,000 a week to $5,000 before they withheld anything.
I finally made it to a union gig.
Ive been told the residuals are much better on Comedy Central.
I moved into a nicer, more expensive apartment based on my new pay.
I really thought I was a king.
Because at a certain point, you have to trust the momentum and hope youll continue.
And then, of course, I went on strike and the show I was on was canceled.
And Im like, Oh, no, this just feels sort of familiar.
If Im going out, Im like, Guys, lets go to Bobs Big Boy!
When he announced that, I thought there must be limits.
It must be a onetime deal.
Then I realized it was for any meal, all the way through the strike.
I thought,Can he really afford that?And he absolutely can.
That was humbling to realize it just highlights how much wealth there is out there.
Im not trying to attack Drew Carey or anyone with this.
That is the way to use your wealth.
We had a joint teachers-union protest with theAbbott Elementarywriters.
I know some of our writers have been going to hotel union workers pickets.
Theres all kinds of labor movements happening in L.A., and to see it spilling over is pretty exciting.
Before this, it wasnt common for me to walk seven or eight miles in a day.
And now it happens multiple times a week.
Its like were creating their worst possible nightmare.
After we closed the writers room, I was working part time, so the money dropped a bunch.
And then who knows once the strike is over?
How long will it be before I can sell another thing or get on a staff?
I do not have parents with money.
None of my friends went to Harvard.
My writer friends tend to be more working class.
There are people who are still trying to work during a work stoppage.
Theres this thing calledfi-corein the union.
It tends to attract people who have more of a libertarian, right-leaning perspective.
And there are people likeAziz AnsariandSeth Rogenwere trying to shoot a movie.
We work on every show together, and we split a paycheck.
So we are working very consistently, but our bank accounts would not show that.
On my last show, I was taking home $1,600 a week.
Which, by the way, was very stupid of me.
Because of the strike, Im staying with my parents.
Ive been hitting it so hard on the side gigs, like dog-sitting.
At one point, I had four dogs in my one-bedroom apartment.
Im babysitting as well.
Its just not feasible right now in the industry for me to even be considering having my own.
Ive been lucky to get a couple of side writing gigs through LinkedIn.
I applied to the Entertainment Community Fund, and they gave me a stipend in June.
I havent done the WGA Fund because Im in arrears with the WGA, so I dont qualify.
I cant afford to pay off my dues right now.
You have to pay your membership dues quarterly.
You have to declare how much you made and then pay a percentage of that to your union.
And I fell behind on that, having been unemployed for almost a year.
Ive been paying small amounts when I can, but Im not paid up.
So Im not currently an active-status member.
Some friends and I were out to dinner two months ago.
We were joking around, and we were like, Lets all say our craziest opinion.
People were making jokes, saying funny things.
The writers are asking for way too much, and they think they deserve heaven and earth.
And they went on and on.
I got so upset at the table.
It was all happy until then.
This person works for a studio, though.
Most people that Ive come in contact with have been very supportive of the strike.
Then the pandemic happened.
Then I got staffed again on that shows second season, and then that got canceled.
It was such a bummer.
I loved that car.
Then they told me I was getting back almost $20,000 for it.
Im in such a financial crunch, I was like,holy shit, thats amazing!
Its going to help keep me afloat until the strike is over.
The majority of the crew didnt care or feel like it pertained to them.
It was really demoralizing and difficult.
He kept us away from set and from any location that might have a picket line going.
On days there was picketing, myself and the handful of other workers would walk away.
I also talked to the WGA.
And its based on behavior weve seen on set over the years.
The way were dismissed and talked about.
Were often treated like the help.
We are the ones who are asked to do the longest hours with the least reward.
We dont have residuals.
Were not going to get residuals.
So the fight for us is a bit different.
But we have a lot less power.
I just stopped working a couple weeks ago.
I make between $75,000 and $90,000 a year.
As soon as my latest job ended, I had to go into intense budget mode.
New York City unemployment is so abysmally low $500 a week it will cover half of my rent.
Ive canceled almost every subscription streaming service except for Criterion because Im a huge snob.
Im lucky my family lives here.
I can rent out my apartment and live with my parents.
But I feel really scared.
I know these companies are not reliant on us to make their money like the studios were.
Its possible for me to imagine a world where what I do is no longer viable.
I never imagined this would be the case based around peoples endless hunger to consume narrative in all forms.
But now, I think were max five years away fromAI being able to make everything.
The reality is, I dont think people will care.
Thats the thing the guys at the top of the corporate ladder are banking on.
Im the classic walking, talking, middle-class financial goal.
I bought my apartment five years after I got in the union.
I make enough money to pay my bills, I support local businesses, I eat out sometimes.
Im what weve been told from the time were young were supposed to be getting to as Americans.
But this way of life is being threatened.
Im hopeful, but its a thin hope right now.
It was more than you would make as a PA. On average it was about $375 a day.
Theres a Target right down my street, so I applied.
I was like,Sure, why not?Its in walking distance.
I didnt get the job.
When the strike hit, I was employed full time and had been for a while.
I was laid off, and I wasnt expecting it.
Since then, Ive been a delivery worker to make some extra money.
Id sold stuff on eBay.
Im not okay with the strike if Im being honest.
Im not a writer; Im not going to see anything at the end of this road.
All Im going to see is $60,000 in lost wages.
And they want to talk solidarity and all this shit.
I just dont agree with it.
I think its one greedy side fighting another greedy side.
Theyre not seeing anything at the end of this.
I respect a lot of the writers demands.
I think residuals with streaming is something that has to be addressed.
A lot of late-night shows are typically 40-to-42-week runs.
Their minimum is around $5,000 a week.
And thats a minimum.
Thats a lot more than I ever made in a year.
A lot of people arent seeing the light at the end of this tunnel.
TheAMCWritersAssistantWhoRefsHigh-SchoolBasketballGames
Location:Los AngelesYears in industry:8
I was making about $23.50 an hour for AMC.
I was in that range between $1,100 to $1,200 every week.
I have a side gig.
I work as a basketball official for youth and high school.
you’re able to make up to $35 to $40 per game.
More recently, I did ten games straight.
That was a lot of work, but you bring home around $300 for a day.
I filed for unemployment not too long after my last room wrapped.
Shortly before the strike, I was given a co-write on a finale episode.
The room wrapped before we could finish.
I was paid for the outline.
That payment for the first draft would have been around a couple grand.
I have no idea if I have any rights to being paid after such a long period.
I dont have a team to reach out to and be like, What happens with my payment?
So I had some momentum before we all stopped.
It was my third season on aStarzshow.
None of us actually had to cross the picket line.
They made it so we never saw any picketers, which is a little shady.
We all kind of naturally shut down or finished our shows one by one until there was nothing left.
We were one of I think five shows left in the country that was still going.
I am fully in support of the strike.
But its hard to get onboard too much because we were supposed to strike for our own union.
And we had voted it was a 98 percent vote to strike.
So its tough to now be out of work for someone elses strike.
And there was a lot of talk of like, Why would you do that?
This isnt your fight.
Let the few of us who are still working make our last couple of paychecks.
We all support each other but the actors and writers werent part of putting our strike together.
Because the animation guild is not on strike.
But what work can we do after that?
Pre-strike, my gross income was about $950 a week.
After taxes and insurance, usually that drops to like $688 a week.
Its one of the more higher-paying animation jobs, unfortunately.
And that doesnt include my car payment and other credit card bills Im trying to get down.
So well say just under $700 a week.
Ive been in a striking mood for a while.
I helped unionize my office.
One of the reasons we did so was because our studio did not pay us during the holidays.
As a PA, I was making more money than our script coordinator a whole $200 more.
Thats why I had to unionize the office.
Were all under the age of 30, and were like, Yeah, capitalism fucking sucks.
Lets fight back against it.
I checked my account, and Im in the double digits because my unemployment hasnt been fully accepted yet.
Ive been trying to apply for freelance writer gigs that arent for struck companies.
I do have retail experience.
Im sure I can go back into it if I need to.
The day-to-day costs are, What am I going to eat?
Im trying to make cheaper meals at home.
Our parents have been able to contribute in some capacity.
But its still like, Im not gonna be going out to eat for a very long time.
ThenThe Walking Deadcame, and it was a slow growth.
I have a great connection, and its been consistent.
But were some of the lowest-paid people on movie sets.
Writers want residuals because theyre getting $6 residual checks.
That should not be happening.
Wouldnt it be cool if you couldnt work us six days straight?
If you work six days straight, you get six-day pay, which is time and a half.
And then if you work a seventh day, you get double time.
And if you work an eighth day, it just resets back to one.
On one of theFast & Furiousmovies, I once worked, I think, 36 days straight.
Pre-strike, Id be on track to make six figures per year.
I negotiate my own rates.
Its always a battle.
Were not spending as much money.
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