Today is Equal Pay Day, dedicated to equal pay for men and women. But in Hollywood, a true equal payday is a long way away. Here are 14 horrifying stats, and some telling anecdotes.
Iron Man Beats Katniss
“The world’s highest-paid actress, [Jennifer] Lawrence, made $52 million in the 12 months to June 2015,” Forbes wrote last year. “An impressive number until it is compared to the $80 million banked by Robert Downey Jr., the world’s top-paid actor.”
Lawrence wrote a powerful essay about pay inequality after the Sony email hack revealed that she was paid less than her male “American Hustle” co-stars.
“Got a steve warren/gretchen rush call that it’s unfair the male actors get 9 percent in the pool and jennifer is only at 7pts,” wrote a Sony executive in a leaked email. “You may recall Jennifer was at 5 (amy was and is at 7) and WE anted in 2 extra points for Jennifer to get her up to 7. If anyone needs to top jennifer up it’s megan [producer Megan Ellison]. BUT I think amy and Jennifer are tied so upping JL, ups AA.”
Gumpert added: “The current talent deals are: O’Russell: 9 percent; Cooper: 9 percent; Bale: 9 percent; Renner: 9 percent; Lawrence: 7 percent; Adams: 7 percent.”
The Age Factor
“While male actors see their careers peak at the age of 46, female actors reach their professional pinnacles at age 30, according to a TIME analysis of the careers of over 6,000 actors and actresses.”
Katniss, Black Widow and… That’s It for Women
“Scarlett Johansson, who earned $35.5 million last year, was the only film actress to join Lawrence on the 2015 edition of the Celebrity 100, Forbes’ list of top-paid celebrities,” Forbes added.
One Anonymous Perspective
“Across the board at the executive level, it’s at least a 20 percent difference between men and women’s salaries,” said one top female executive at a premium cable network.
A female producer of Oscar-nominated dramas told TheWrap that Hollywood’s pay gap between genders is “easily 20 or 30 percent.” She stressed that female producers and directors, and not just actresses, are undercut.
Part of the Problem is Representation
Of the Hollywood executives who choose which movies are made, only 20 percent are women, a New York Times analysis found.
Fewer Than One in Five
Of the people who decide which television shows Americans see, 17.2 percent are women, according to the same analysis.
Another helpful anecdote
In June, actress Zoe Saldana said she struggled to secure child care as part of her contract for “Star Trek: Beyond” — while her male counterparts were getting high-class perks.
The Academy
89 percent of the Academy’s director’s branch is male, as is 87 percent of its executives branch the Washington Post found.
Congratulations?
Four of the 435 Academy Award nominations for Best Director since 1927 have gone to women. Kathryn Bigelow is the only one to ever win, The Washington Post noted.
Who Gets to Speak
For films released in 2014 and TV shows in 2014-15, 66.5 percent of speaking characters were male, and just 33.5 percent were female, according to a USC study.
Who Gets to Direct
In the same time period, 84.8 percent of directors were male, while just 15.2 percent were female, the USC study found.
Who Gets to Write
Same study: 71.1 percent of writers were male, and 28.9 percent were female.
Outnumbered
In 2012-13, women were outnumbered 2-to-1 among film leads, 8-to-1 among film directors, and 4-to-1 among film writers, according to a UCLA study.
On TV, women were outnumbered nearly 2-to-1 in leading roles, nearly 2-to-1 among creators of broadcast scripted shows, more than 2-to-1 among creators of cable scripted shows and more than 4-to-1 among the creators of digital series, that study found.
68 Cents
Women writers made 78 cents on the dollar to men in 2012, and fell to 68 cents by 2014, according to The Writers Guild of America West’s 2016 Hollywood Writers Report.
Ugh
Women made up 19 percent of all directors, writers, producers, executive producers, editors and cinematographers working on the top 250 domestic grossing films of 2015, according to a San Diego State University Study. Of the top 100 films, women filled just 16 percent of the same roles.
