How Much Do Child Actors Get Paid in 2026? Pay Rates, Residuals & Trust Accounts Explained

If your kid wants to act — or if you’re a producer wondering what casting minors actually costs — the question always comes first: what’s the pay?

The short answer: child actors get paid the same union minimums as adults. A 10-year-old on a SAG-AFTRA TV shoot earns the same $1,246/day performer rate as the 40-year-old standing next to her. Where child acting differs is what happens after the paycheck: trust account requirements, work permits, and hour limits that don’t apply to adult performers.

Here’s the complete breakdown for 2026: the rates, the residuals, the Coogan Law rules, and the parent checklist that keeps you out of trouble.

How Child Actor Pay Works: The Basics

The pay structure for minors in entertainment has two layers:

1. The rate itself — identical to adult rates under SAG-AFTRA contracts. There is no “kid discount.”
2. The protections around the rate — trust accounts, work permits, and hour limits that vary by state and are designed to protect the minor’s earnings and wellbeing.

On non-union work, pay is negotiated job by job, but even there the going rates for kids roughly track union minimums on professional sets
— and fall well below them on low-budget or content-creator jobs.

SAG-AFTRA Minimums for Child Actors in 2026

The same SAG-AFTRA TV/Theatrical contract minimums that apply to adults apply to performers of any age. Current rates (contract through
June 30, 2026):

A few things worth noting:

• Weekly rates are the better deal for producers. If a child works 5 consecutive days in a week, the $4,326 weekly rate applies instead of 5 × $1,246 = $6,230. Most series regulars and recurring minors are paid weekly.
• Overtime and penalties still apply. Golden time, meal penalties, and overtime premiums are calculated the same way for minors — and they’re more likely to kick in because kids have shorter legal workdays, which pushes productions into penalty situations faster.
• Commercial rates differ. SAG-AFTRA commercial contracts use a session-fee structure rather than the theatrical day rate. The performer earns a session fee for the shoot day, then additional payments if the commercial airs (usage) or if it’s classified by media and cycle. Children earn the same session fees and residuals as adults on commercials.

Guest spots and episodic TV

Most child guest appearances on scripted TV are paid at the daily principal rate ($1,246/day) for a day player, or the weekly rate for multi-day work. Top-of-show guest stars negotiate above scale — including kids with recognizable credits. For series regulars, contracts are individually negotiated and can range from several thousand dollars per episode for new faces on smaller shows to six figures per episode for established young stars. Those top-end figures are negotiated, not union-mandated.

Film

Under the SAG-AFTRA theatrical agreement, child performers on feature films earn the same day/week rates as adult principals. SAG-AFTRA
low-budget agreements (Micro-Budget, Short Project, Student Film, Ultra Low Budget, etc.) set reduced minimums that also apply equally to minors — daily rates on these agreements range from a few hundred dollars down to deferred payment on the smallest tiers. Check the current SAG-AFTRA rate sheets for the specific tier, since these adjust with each contract cycle.

Session Fees vs. Residuals: What Kids Earn When the Work Re-Airs

For many young performers, residuals are where the real money accumulates — sometimes for years after a single job.

Session fee = what the performer is paid for the day(s) of actual work. On a commercial, that’s the shoot-day payment.

Residuals = payments triggered when the finished work is exhibited beyond the initial window: network reruns, streaming licenses, foreign broadcast, DVD/home video, and so on. Children earn the same residuals as adults. There is no age-based reduction.

A national commercial that runs for a full 13-week cycle with renewals can generate multiples of the original session fee in residual payments. A single episode of a streaming series that stays on a platform for years generates smaller but recurring residual checks. For parents, this is the number to watch: a child who books a national spot at age 8 may still be cashing residual checks at 14.

One practical note: residual payments are typically issued to the performer of record — which for a minor means the parent or legal guardian managing the child’s trust and accounts. Make sure your child’s representation has correct payee information on file, because misdirected residual checks are a common and avoidable headache.

The Coogan Law: California’s 15% Trust Rule

Named for Jackie Coogan, the 1920s child star whose earnings were spent by his parents, the California Coogan Law is the best-known financial protection for minor performers in the U.S. Its core requirement is simple and well-established:

In California, at least 15% of a minor’s gross earnings from entertainment work must be set aside in a blocked trust account (a “Coogan account”) that the child alone can access upon reaching legal adulthood.

Key details parents and producers should know:

• The employer is responsible for the set-aside. California employers of minors in entertainment must deposit the 15% directly into the child’s Coogan trust account. It’s not optional and it’s not the parents’ job to remember — though in practice, parents should verify it happened.
• The account is blocked. Neither the parents nor the child can withdraw from it before the child turns 18 (with limited exceptions). That’s the point.
• The remaining 85% goes to the parent or guardian, who is legally expected to manage it in the child’s interest — though California law does not require the other 85% to be preserved the way the 15% is.
• A work permit is required. California minors need an Entertainment Work Permit, and employers need a Permit to Employ Minors, before the work begins.
• The trust must exist before the first paycheck. Open the Coogan account before your child books the first job, because the employer needs the account details to make the deposit.

New York’s protections

New York has its own version of these safeguards: the state requires that a portion of a child performer’s earnings be held in trust (the commonly cited figure is 15% under the NY child performer provisions, mirroring Coogan), and it imposes permit and hour rules through its Department of Labor. If your child works in New York, confirm the current trust percentage and permit requirements with an entertainment attorney or the NY Department of Labor — state rules get updated, and the specifics matter.

Other states

Outside California and New York, trust-account requirements vary or don’t exist at all. Some states with growing production hubs have minimal minor-earnings protections beyond general child labor rules. The practical takeaway: even where the law doesn’t require a trust account, open one anyway. Any bank can set up a custodial or blocked account for a minor, and voluntarily setting aside 15%+ of every paycheck is the single smartest financial move a stage parent can make.

Work Permits and Hour Limits for Minors

Every state sets its own rules for employing minors, and entertainment work is no exception. The specifics — permit types, maximum daily ours, required rest periods, mandatory on-set guardians or studio teachers, and school-day restrictions — vary by state and by the child’s age.

What to know at a high level:

• Work permits are required in production-heavy states. California and New York both require entertainment work permits for minors, issued before employment begins. Many other states have equivalent requirements.
• Hours are capped by age. Younger children have shorter maximum workdays than teenagers, and the caps include school time on school days. A 6-year-old’s legal workday is substantially shorter than a 16-year-old’s — exact figures vary by state.
• A parent or guardian must be present. Minors on set must be accompanied by a parent or legal guardian (or an approved designee). On many productions, a studio teacher/welfare worker is also required to oversee the child’s hours and schooling.
• Schooling continues. Productions employing school-age minors must accommodate education — typically through a set teacher and minimum instructional hours on school days.
• Night work is restricted. Most states limit or prohibit late-night work for younger minors.

For producers: factor the shorter workdays into your schedule before the shoot. Nothing blows a budget faster than discovering at 4 p.m. that your 8-year-old lead legally wraps at 5 — and you’re paying the adult cast overtime while you wait for tomorrow.

For parents: the permit paperwork is your leverage. Never let your child work without the required permits, even on a “quick” non-union gig. If a production resists the paperwork, that’s a red flag about everything else.

Non-Union Child Actor Pay: What to Expect

Non-union pay has no floor, so ranges are wide. Treat all of the following as estimates based on typical market practice, not guarantees:

• Professional non-union commercial or industrial: roughly $300–$800/day for the shoot (estimate), with buyout or usage fees on top depending on the contract. National-use buyouts can push total compensation into the low thousands (estimate).
• Non-union background/extra work: roughly $100–$200/day (estimate) in most markets.
• Student films and micro-budget projects: often $0–$150/day (estimate), sometimes copy/credit/meals only. These are resume
  builders, not income.
• UGC and content-creator gigs: brands hiring kid creators for TikTok/Reels-style content typically pay $100–$500 per video (estimate), sometimes product-only. Always get usage terms in writing — a “quick video” that runs as a paid ad for a year should pay like an ad.
• Print modeling: roughly $200–$500/day (estimate) for non-union print work in most markets.

One rule of thumb: if a non-union offer is below half the union equivalent, it’s either a passion project (fine, if you choose it) or someone undervaluing your child’s work (walk away).

Who Manages the Money?

With minors, there’s always a chain of custody for earnings. Here’s how it typically breaks down:

1. The employer/producer pays the contracted rate and — in California — deposits the 15% directly into the Coogan trust.
2. The payroll company (common on union productions) issues the check to the parent/guardian as payee for the minor, minus the trust set-aside.
3. The parent or legal guardian receives and manages the funds. Legally, this money is the child’s — parents are stewards, not owners.
4. The agent (typically 10%) and manager (typically 15–20%, where applicable) take their commissions from the gross. These percentages apply to minors the same as adults. Note that combined representation commissions can take 20–30% off the top before the family sees a dollar.
5. The trust account holds the protected 15% until the child reaches majority.

Practical advice: keep the child’s acting income in a separate bank account from household money from day one. Commingling funds is how
“we’ll pay it back later” disasters start. And talk to a CPA familiar with entertainment income before the first big check — child actor income is taxable, and quarterly estimated payments surprise a lot of first-time stage parents.

Parent Checklist: Before Your Child’s First Paid Gig

• [ ] Open a Coogan/blocked trust account before the first job — the employer needs the account info to deposit the protected percentage.
• [ ] Get the entertainment work permit for your state (California and New York both require them; check your state’s labor department).
• [ ] Confirm the pay rate in writing — day rate, weekly rate, overtime terms, and for commercials, the session fee plus usage/residual structure.
• [ ] Verify trust deposits after every job. The employer is responsible, but mistakes happen — check the account.
• [ ] Separate the money. Dedicated bank account for acting income; never mix with household funds.
• [ ] Budget for commissions. Agent (~10%) and manager (~15–20%) come off the gross. Do the math before you mentally spend the check.
• [ ] Talk to an entertainment CPA about taxes and quarterly estimated payments.
• [ ] Know the hour limits for your child’s age in your state — and make sure the production’s schedule respects them.
• [ ] Keep copies of everything — contracts, call sheets, pay stubs, trust deposit confirmations. Residuals can arrive years later; you’ll want the paper trail.
• [ ] Never skip the permit to save time. No legitimate production will ask you to.

The Bottom Line

Child actors earn real money — the same union minimums as adults, starting at $1,246/day for principal work — and residuals can keep paying for years. The system also has real protections: the 15% Coogan trust set-aside in California, similar trust provisions in New York, and work permits and hour limits in every production state. The parents who do well are the ones who treat it like a business from the first audition: separate accounts, written rates, verified trust deposits, and a CPA on speed dial.

If your kid is ready to start auditioning, browse the current kid and teen casting calls on Project Casting and submit to the ones that fit — new family-friendly roles post every day, and applying takes a few minutes.

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