Leaked TV Star Salaries Spark Race Controversy

Leaked TV star salaries illustrate Hollywood’s HUGE pay-gap.

In a new report by Variety, the salaries for Hollywood’s biggest TV actors were revealed to the public and the results are pretty surprising.

Variety, recently surveyed actors, executives, attorneys, and managers in order to get an idea of how much actors are getting paid on television. The results showed that the Big Bang Theory cast were compensated $1,000,000 per episode. Meanwhile, the cast of Empire (not including Terrence Howard and Taraji P. Henson), which has higher ratings than most TV shows were paid only $20,000 an episode.

The pay gap between white and non-white actors has sparked a controversy. As Newsweek pointed out, “Look at the lower-end of the totem pole and a pattern emerges: many of the actors are minorities and, oddly, many of the names have earned critical acclaim for their roles, but their pay doesn’t seem to be commensurate with their cultural impact.”

For example, Gina Rodriguez is an award winning actress. Her hit TV series Jane the Virgin is a hit and connects to the growing Hispanic demographic in the United States. However, she is only paid $60,000 an episode, which is a far cry from the cast of Modern Family who earn 400% more than Rodriguez. In fact, examining the list of actors’ salaries, non-white actors are constantly listed at the bottom.

Many fans took to Twitter to call out the TV industry’s pay-gap.

Several years ago, many actors strived to land a major motion picture deal. The rise of Netflix and hit dramas such as Breaking Bad, many actors are deciding to work on hit TV shows instead of a feature film. However, when there is a major pay-gap between white and non-white actors, it shows the transition to television still puts African Americans, Hispanics, and other non-white actors at the back of the bus.

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