Ms. In The Biz: It’s a Thursday at the end of the month, which can mean only one thing if you’re an assistant in entertainment: payday. After pulling a long 60-hour week plus overtime, you are counting on every penny of this check to pay your rent, your car payment, your student loan bill, and pray you have enough left to make a small dent on that credit card. You check your bank account for the deposit…
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Talking about wages is something that needs to become more mainstream. The notion that it isn't appropriate to talk about wages needs to stop, especially in the arts industry. If there is some reason I am not being paid the same rate as my peer, they should be able to appropriately outline my shortcomings as an employee. This not only clarifies the discrepancy but also gives me a clear path toward earning more since I know where I can improve. When it comes to assistantships, it is unfortunate that higher-ups have taken advantage of eager workers hoping to make a name for themselves to drive down wages in a supply-and-demand type approach. I've mentioned before how the arts is certainly a privileged industry that, as the article notes, often relies on entry level workers having a large financial support system. We need to talk more among ourselves and speak up more, as the author writes, "our silence is what maintains the status quo".
Spoilers for the new season of Bojack Horseman, but this episode hurt me to the core, especially at the end when the organizers who were trying to unionize the Hollywoo Assistants were all given promotions to get them out of the way. Yeouch. Across the board, whether you’re an assistant or not, we should be talking about our paychecks more. Don’t let your bosses convince you that it’s illegal to talk about what you’re getting paid. Walk away from that Baby Boomer mentality of it not being “polite” to talk about your wages with other people. Tell people. Be an ally to each other. There has never been a more defining moment in my life than when someone looked at me and went “I’m sorry, you’re making how much? I make almost two and a half times more than you and your job is way more complicated and mine. You need to tell them to give you more before you come back next year.” Tell people so they know how you’ve been devalued, and call people out for not paying you properly.
This article brings up a lot of poignant points about how assistantships and internships can be and are oftentimes a crutch for employers and professionals to keep making money while not doing most of the work. The notion that an assistant feels a need to stay with someone as their go to assistant while never actually getting hired to do the work by the company is disheartening but oftentimes the norm especially in our industry. For stage management in particular, being an assistant over and over again for a person, leads to more work with the hopes that if that person passes up an opportunity, they'd recommend you for that position and you could eventually get it. I think that we have a pretty biased way of looking at it since being an assistant sort of works for us- but in other industries, its rather detrimental and can halt someones career or leave them unemployed if they strive for more.
I really agree with Elliot that talking about money needs to be something we are more comfortable with as a culture. The general population isn't going to realize that something is an issue until the people experiencing these injustices make it known. I started listening to a podcast recently called "This is Uncomfortable" in which the host talks to various friends and acquaintance about their issues with money and why they find it difficult to talk about their situation. Unsurprisingly, the majority of episodes have at least some relation to paying for education, and there have actually been a couple of episodes talking very specifically about issues with making a living wage at the ground level of an industry while also getting the necessary experience to rise through the ranks. The other side of this issue is that it is even more uncomfortable talking to your superior about money than your friends or family. As a high school student (not having any immediate expenses but saving for college) I had to talk to my boss, who I was usually very comfortable talking to about anything, for a raise because I was technically an independent contractor and was losing almost a third of my paycheck to taxes, and that may have been the most awkward encounter I've had in the last year. The stigma around talking about payment needs to be removed so that we can find a way to level the playing field and make sure that a manageable salary is achieved for every worker.
I have been lucky, probably more lucky than I can ever imagined to get a job that is what I wanted. More important, I got a job that is stable enough for me to enjoy it. Working as a assistant is often worse than just being a stagehand or carpenter who are paid by hours. I have seen my friends in scenic design branch worked 60 hours a week with merely no payment at all. This is not acceptable for me, but there were always reason after reason that we tried to convince ourselves that it was worth it. The biggest problem I see in whole assistant culture in the industry is that the time and effort people put into their job are being seen as necessary to get experience and possible a future position. However the jobs being done is not only assisting, they are real work that should be done by a employee. The first we can do is probably normalize the assistant as a sustainable job, not a job that requires people to grind through.
While I am not trying to become a writes assistant this articles is very relatable. Going into stage management, I am going to be looking for production assistant jobs once I leave school. The only way you can become a working stage manager is by being a pa. You have to work through the ranks. I know production assistants that are PA’s for years. The downside to this is that they are only getting paid minimum wage. On some shows the producers only allow them to work 40 hours. It’s a really discouraging system as it is very hard to be able to pay bills and all of that while making such little money. While I understand increasing the pay would amount to a higher weekly cost, I think you either need to be paid more, or the role of PA needs to change and become less important to the production.
This article is just demonstrating another example of how the entertainment industry is consistently plagued with barriers of privilege even before entry into the field. This sort of attitude of taking advantage of those who are working their asses off to ensure the industry functions are being ignored of their true value. It’s an undesirable situation all around and I hope that the movement being discussed takes hold and people become more aware of what is going on and why it needs to change if we are really moving towards being a more diverse and inclusive industry. It’s obvious and the article also mentions that this situation is a common one also seen commonly with unpaid internships, we are stopping people before they get the opportunity to walk in the door and if the company depends on this unpaid or underpaid labor to function there are serious problems. In this case it isn’t the fact that the money isn’t there, the entertainment industry budgets typically have an a large budget that is frequently spent ineffectively and it should be invested in the people working for the company. One of the action items listed at the end of the article was to talk about your pay and I can’t say it enough because even though it can be an uncomfortable topic knowing what people are making empowers you instead of giving all the power to the employer.
With inflation constantly growing and payment staying the same, it is increasingly important to talk about adjusting to livable wages for people in the entertainment industry (or any industry for that matter). The ideas of education, promotion, and expenses are very important when addressing the #PayUpHollywood goals. The education wall is one that immediately stands out to me, because there is still a gap between those who are unable to attend college and those who can, and those who can afford to spend a summer at an internship and those who cannot. There are so many factors that come into play when creating disparities and giving people the upper-hand in work situations, and it can be so hard to create a level playing field when these advantages come into play. Regardless, assistants work incredibly hard in the industry, and are part of what helps major players keep moving (even if it’s just a coffee run), so they definitely deserve a pay that reflects that.
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