THB #373: WGA Pay, By The Numbers

I’m trying to keep this as simple as I can… but it’s very challenging to simply a 755-page contract (the 2020 WGA Theatrical and Television Basic Agreement).

I’m going to offer up a bunch of charts at the bottom of the page that I have culled from the MBA (is it still the MBA - Minimum Basic Agreement - or is it now the TTBA?). But it seems easier to try to offer some examples and let you wander through the existing rules. (Well, the ones that existed before the strike.)

Brittani Nichols.

If you have been paying enough attention to be reading me, you have likely heard from Ms. Nichols. She is the Abbott Elementary writer who has been willing to put herself on the line, publicly and with her own name, to argue for the rights of others who have no yet achieved her status. Huzzah!

I am not here to diffuse her complaints, but to just explain how much she should be making from her job on Abbott Elementary as a point of perspective.

As best I can tell, she has gotten writing credit on 5 episodes of the (so-far) 35 episode prime time network series. She was an Executive Story Editor in Season 1 and became a Producer in Season 2.

If she was “just” a writer in what was, basically, a half season followed by a full season, the minimum - as best I can figure - should have been $118,196 for the first (half) season and $216,008 for Season 2. (This is based on a term deal for 26 and then, 52 weeks)