Hollywood assistants are demanding better pay and treatment from their bosses, including one who says her boss threw a package at her head when he didn’t like the way she put it down on his desk.
Other support staffers, some on as little as $12 an hour, say they’ve asked for raises only to be told to ‘pay your dues’. Many complained that they don’t receive benefits such as overtime or healthcare coverage.
Many said they earned around $50,000 a year before taxes and struggled to make ends meet in Los Angeles, where the average rent is about $2500 a month.
In the midst of this chaos, a new hashtag-turned-movement has emerged to advocate for them: #PayUpHollywood.
TV writer Liz Alper (pictured) shared her experience as a Hollywood assistant in October and created the hashtag #PayUpHollywood
Kiran Subramaniam (left) said her boss once threw a small package at her head. Andi Royer (right), a Type 1 diabetic, was told she wasn’t eligible for health insurance because she was an assistant on a show that was in its first season
Kiran Subramaniam, 31, told The New York Times about her years of horror spent working as an assistant at the talent agency ICM in her mid-20s.
She recounts in one instance about how, after she put a package on her boss’s desk in a way he didn’t like, he threw it at her head. She said her boss later claimed it was a joke, and then apologized when she threatened to quit.
In another incident, Subramaniam says she was forced to walk up and down Rodeo Drive to find his Porsche after he couldn’t remember where he’d parked it.
She told the New York Times that after failing to find the car, she expected to be berated. Instead, her boss said he’d simply buy another one.
‘I just don’t think we can be silent on certain things anymore,’ Subramaniam told The Times.
Andi Royer, 32, a Type 1 diabetic, told The Times she didn’t receive health insurance coverage when she took her job as an assistant for a TV show produced by Universal Television.
The human resources department allegedly told her that employees working on shows in their first season weren’t eligible for heath care coverage.
Stories like this have led to the rise of #PayUpHollywood.
The conversation around the subject began in October when the co-hosts of the screenwriting podcast Scriptnote, Craig Mazin and John August – writers in Hollywood – asked listeners to call in with their stories of being assistants.
One of them was TV writer Liz Alper, who created the hashtag. That same month, she tweeted about her own experience as an assistant and has retweeted others’ experiences.
‘Today’s assistants are tomorrow’s writers, directors, execs, agents, producers, department heads, DPs, Cam ops, location managers, production supervisors, editors, composers, Crafty, accountants, etc,’ she tweeted at the time.
‘Diversity should exist in all aspects of Hollywood. Pay for it.’
She even put out a #PayUpHollywood survey, recruiting more than 1,100 support staffers to ask them questions about their treatment on the job.
The conversation around the topic began in October when the co-hosts of the screenwriting podcast Scriptnote, Craig Mazin and John August (left) asked listeners to call in with their stories of being assistants. Alper (right), who created the hashtag, shared her own stories and the stories of others
Some agencies have responded to the hashtag (pictured) by increasing salaries and reducing working hours
According to Variety, results showed that nearly half of the participants had been assistants for three or more years.
And more than two-thirds say they had to take on a second job in order to make ends meet.
Additionally, almost 65 percent said they were paid less than $50,000 before taxes, while the average rent is Los Angeles is $2,530.
‘That’s what we’re talking about when we say pay your dues,’ Alper said at panel in November, according to Variety.
‘[As an industry] we’re no longer saying: “Take the low paycheck.” We’re saying: “Figure out how, on top of your 60-hour workweek, you can work a second job, so you can make that rent, so you can afford to go out and see those movies your bosses want or require you to go see…”‘
The survey also found that 93 percent of assistants reported feeling anxiety and 66 percent said it caused depression.
In response to the movement, some agencies have pledged to provide a better working environment for their employees.
Verve, the talent agency, said it plans to boost pay for assistants and mailroom employees between 25 and 40 percent and reducing working hours, reported Deadline.
And agency ICM said assistants would be receiving an additional month of salary on top of their bonus pay.