Dec 19 2019, Scriptnotes episode 422 - “Assistants Aren’t Paid Nearly Enough” (light edits)

CRAIG MAZIN: If you go back to Evelyn, our agency assistant who wrote in, what she is saying is essentially she comes home with roughly $480 a week. That’s about $1,900 a month. That’s including overtime. So, they’re “stuck” with Evelyn because they’re employing her in a traditional normal way that it’s supposed to work in America, [at] what amounts to about $22,000 a year.

When I moved here in 1992, my first job paid me $20,000 a year. OK, she’s talking about take home. Fine. It’s roughly then, you know what, it’s the equivalent [of $36,453.58 in 2019, per data.bls.gov].

It’s even less survivable now… Miguel, Evelyn, everyone writing in – these people are at the heart of this enormous pillar of our economy, of our American economy.

Our entertainment industry is enormous. It is one of the few exporting industries we have. All of these people know everyone’s phone number, address, credit card number, Social Security number, the gate code to the house, the alarm code to the alarm. They know everything.

They see financial statements. They handle scripts that are confidential. There are a thousand Evelyns out there who are being terribly underpaid, and all of them can destroy every secret we have in Hollywood. So is this how we’re going to run our business? To save those dollars because we can while CEOs.

Forget CEOs. Even like the senior vice president is making so much money. I’m not saying that you have to pay Evelyn $300,000. But $20 an hour is a reasonable place to start, don’t you?

Reader, I think back to the interviews I had at firms like United Talent Agency or The Gersh Agency, and how I didn’t get those jobs and now I’m sort of happy I didn’t.

Because I would end up like Evelyn or Miguel. Angry at how little I get paid, and how much money my boss or my boss’ clients are getting, then resenting, it’s a vicious cycle.

So I’m glad I went to Per Scholas and then came back to LA. The troubleshooting methodologies from the various trainings are helpful in Troubleshooting Life.

2021 #PayUpHollywood Survey: Support Staffers Hit Hard By the Pandemic, to 2023 strikes that recently ended, Hollywood is in desperate need of troubleshooting.

ACTION POINT: Set a positive, helpful example at your firm, and in life