Jump On Board
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Written by Karen Woodward
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 When I read about the “recalculated” pay for WME Assistants, I couldn’t get past the fact that assistants are now paid hourly, which seems unnecessarily degrading.
In my day (which wasn’t that long ago) we were paid on a weekly basis, and I made $350/week as an assistant. The sucker agent trainees made $300. Note that this is before taxes, and is less than I make now on unemployment. Benefits were included and I recall that they were satisfactory and kicked in after three months. We didn’t get overtime until there was a lawsuit, and suddenly all the agencies had to pay up. But the caveat was that our boss’s had to sign off on it, and my boss refused to do so. It wasn’t until he found out that my parents didn’t supplement my income (?!) that he actually allowed me to get my overtime pay.
But I read this latest news about the WME assistants and I couldn’t get past the “hourly” scale. I did the math and realized that in a 50 hour week (the minimum that assistants are expected to work) I earned about $7/hr. I probably would have made more as an illegal fry cook.
But I’ll get to the woefully underpaid in a second. I’m stuck on the hourly thing because this is new to me, and it reeks of a scam. If assistants are full time employees, why are they paid hourly? Aren’t they salaried employees? Is this a way to get creative with what constitutes overtime, and perhaps not give benefits? I turned to some trusted assistant friends to get the scoop, and turns out that assistants are paid hourly with overtime kicking in after a certain amount of hours worked. So if "official hours" are 9am-7pm, anything beyond that 10 hours (?!) is considered overtime. (Note that it’s assumed assistants work though lunch.) They do get benefits, which are still relatively satisfactory, and kick in after three months.
Okay, so I guess not so different from when I was paid on a weekly scale. But I’m still having trouble understanding the hourly thing. Why bother? I know there has to be something I’m overlooking here.
Moving on. According to Nikki Finke, WME had to “recalculate" the pay for WMA assistants (about $13.50 an hour) to be more on par with Endeavor assistants (about $9.50 an hour). Although Finke points out that Endeavorites were earning more overtime than WMA-ers. Um, is that a good thing? They’re making less and working longer hours. That may equal more money at the end of the day, but is it worth it?
Here’s how the pay scale works now:
Under 1 year - $11/hour
1 - 2 years - $12/hr
2 - 3 years $13/hr
Over 3 years - $14/hr
So even the lowliest assistant is making more than I was, but I won’t cry over the unfairness of it all. Instead, let’s take a look at the slave labor involved here. First, it galls me that there are comments on Nikki Finke’s blog saying, “These are still decent wages for entry-level jobs in this economy,” and, “Come on. These assistants are not coal miners. If they do not like the pay and hours let them go back to mommy and daddy. This a Hollywood and this is an opportunity. The should quit whinning or just quit.” Yes, well ok sir. Although your point would have been stronger if you’d run that comment through spell check.
Is it fair to pay assistants such a deplorable salary simply because most of them will take it? It’s true that there is always someone else waiting to take the job of an assistant. But I found that when you pay crap, you end up with a lot of kids whose parents supplement their income, because those are the only people who can afford to take such a job. That results in a small, entitled gene pool of assistants.
Not all assistants are like that. It is possible to live on such a small salary, and I speak from experience. But it means cutting back on a lot, and working longer, and generally slaving away for a company that doesn’t care about you. Yes, that’s oftentimes the reality of the working world, but as someone pointed out on Nikki Finke’s forum, “Do you REALLY want the assistants whose confidentiality and discretion you depend on to be disgruntled?” These kids are dealing with some high level stuff here. News that Us Weekly or The National Enquirer would like to know. Some have access to their boss’s and boss’s client’s social security numbers, bank account numbers, etc. Do you really want to treat these people with such a lack of respect?
Another poster: “[Agents] should be ashamed of themselves, with their car allowances and unlimited expense accounts. The assistants work very hard and can barely afford to get by.” Although another poster later refuted this claim that agents make a lot of money, that’s not really the point. The point is that agents make more money, and have expense accounts, car allowances, and the like. You don’t collect all these perks and then pay your assistant shit, because said assistant will remember that.
I think WME is making a huge mistake in “recalculating” salaries. What they should have done is moved all the assistants up to the salary level that WMA assistants were given before. Happy assistants are more willing to work, and that equals happy bosses. Support staff has to feel as if they are part of the company. It’s perplexing that the entertainment industry seems to be the last to catch on.
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About the Editor
I spent (too) many years working as an assistant and am now familiar with every single job title in Hollywood. Despite what you’ve heard, I was a good assistant, well known for yelling at bosses, stealing food out of conference rooms, having long-winded conversations while on mute, and helping other assistants cover their asses. One screw up no one discovered was the time I set up a huge client meeting only to realize that I forgot to tell the client. I have a master’s degree in Media Studies from Syracuse University which is totally worthless, but useful in holding over people’s heads. In real life I'm a freelance writer covering television and new media, and a content writer/content manager at a company that creates and manages celebrity websites.
Despite my sarcasm and overall bad attitude, I'm a very nice person. Email me at
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