Non-union Los Angeles background actors now make nearly twice as much as a Atlanta background extra.
Los Angeles has just passed a landmark bill that will increase minimum wage to $15/hour. The wage increase was approved 14-1 by the Los Angeles City Council on Tuesday.
Los Angeles is now the largest city to add the $15 dollar-an-hour minimum, a $6 increase on the previous minimum wage.
State Senate President Pro Tem Kevin de Leon spoke with THR about the new minimum wage level.
“It’s a great day for workers in the City of Los Angeles who toiled for wages well below their worth, and for the L.A .City Council which recognized that the workers struggling with poverty deserved a pay raise and better protection. It’s a great victory for working families who love the city of L.A., who want to work in the city of L.A., but who need more money to survive with their children.”
But, it begs the question, will more producers leave Los Angeles and move to Georgia where background extras are cheaper? This is what Kevin de Leon had to say about “runaway productions”.
“People who work in production in Los Angles are not at minimum wage, but slightly higher. But as I negotiated the Hollywood tax credit last year, our goal was always to make sure that these jobs didn’t flee to other states.”
“That mind set flies in opposition to all the hard work we did in negotiating the most comprehensive film tax credit in the history of the state of California,” he counters. “If because of the minimum wage they decide to move to another state … don’t come back.”
Union background extras in Los Angeles currently earn $152/day which is about $19/hour due to a collective bargaining agreement. However, non-union extras will be able to make at least $15/hour that is about $120/8. While a non-union background extra working on a minimum wage paying set in Atlanta earns $58/8.
Source: The Hollywood Reporter
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