Salary Confessions: The TV Staff Writer
WGA dues and agent/lawyer commissions keep them almost even to where they were before, and the 'panic moment' where they'll call it quits
I’ve been writing about how much money people are making (and not) here, here and here. Today, I take a look at a new staff writer and their challenges.
Happy Monday, Series Business readers. Nearly 80 of you have responded to our Salary Confessions series so far, sharing with me how much you make, your deepest financial and career concerns and whether working in the entertainment industry feels sustainable after the turmoil of the last few years. When I’ve chatted with some of you to learn more details about your lives, what you’ve told me has been both cathartic and clarifying to know you’re not the only ones feeling nervous about your future in this town.
It’s not all a big downer. Some of you are doing okay! (I’ve had the head of a production company write in to tell me that their greatest indulgences are a Tesla and fine wine.) I’d love to share more about the people I’ve heard from. Once I receive 100 responses, we’re going to crunch the numbers and deliver a more comprehensive snapshot of how Hollywood lives: Salaries, rent, retirement savings, the works.
All to say, keep sending me those Salary Confessions. Here’s the Google form.
Today’s confessor is a 35-year-old TV and feature film writer who finally broke into a writers room after years of being an assistant and support staffer, only to learn that a first-year writer’s take-home pay isn’t so different after you subtract the $2,500 Writers Guild of America initiation fee and manager/agent/lawyer commissions.
This particular writer today breaks down their exact weekly take-home pay, where it goes — and the stress it has put them under. This writer has “skipped vet visits, skipped eye doctor visits, skipped anything I can skip to save enough to last until the next gig comes by.”