Is the writers’ strike really working? According to AOL news, several studios have either suspended casts of their shows at half-pay or put them on unpaid hiatus (which is apparently against SAG’s contract). You can see the story here. Now, getting only half of an ungodly sum of money is still getting a lot of money for nothing, which I guess is why Steve Carell felt so comfy not coming into the set after the strike began. I too would like to get paid half of a whole lot to stay home and play Zelda on the Wii. But, the fact is this, some actors are going to lose their jobs from this, some writers are going to lose their jobs from this, some shows are going to be cancelled, and some will just never recover in the ratings.
I am not with the studios by any means. But the fact is, the writers are always getting screwed by the studios, from paltry pay (Why does Tom Cruise make $20 million for a film, while the writer who gives him the blueprint of exactly what to do on screen only makes, maybe, $1 million for the same film?) to meager residual payouts. Basically, they are just like every other employee in America.
Does Ford pay their employees a fair wage? Sure, the pay is better than most. But is it really a fair wage in comparison to their profits. Of course not. In every company in this country, the people at the top make all of the money, while the people in the lower echelon do all of the work for chump change. Hollywood works no differently. It’s a whole lot of shit, but it’s nothing the television audience doesn’t deal with in their own lives.
Take an administrative assistant. Often possesses more knowledge than the boss, like how to change the printer cartridge or use Excel, and usually gets burdened with the majority of the work… for $10 an hour. There’s no time to worry about whether or not the wage is “fair”. Of course it’s not fair! But these people are just a little too busy trying to survive on $10 an hour in a $30 an hour world.
As a writer, I really want to stand with the strikers, but as a person, I can’t help but wonder if all of the people in Hollywood don’t need a bit of a reality check.
