ICYMI: TV Weekly Pay Calculator Dashboard Dashboard

TV writer-producers, use this tool to negotiate better deal terms.

(4/9/2021)

Are you being compensated fairly for your experience? As writing and production schedules extend over long periods of time, driving episodic fees toward Guild minimum, it can be difficult for TV writer-producers to be sure.

Last month, the Guild launched the TV Weekly Pay Calculator, an interactive tool that allows you to convert your episodic fee into a weekly rate and compare pay with and without the protection of the MBA’s span provision. If you know how many weeks you are expected to work, you can see what your weekly rate will be if you are covered by the MBA’s span provision—and if you aren’t. You can also see what your total compensation will be if you are protected by span—and if you aren’t.

Since 2017, the MBA’s span provision has protected overscale pay for many writer-producers working on short order series by limiting the period of time covered by a writer-producer’s episodic fee to 2.4 weeks of work. If a writer-producer works longer than 2.4 weeks multiplied by the number of episodes (e.g., 24 weeks for a ten-episode order), additional compensation is due. If your compensation exceeds certain amounts, you may not be protected by the MBA’s span provision and should negotiate for overscale span protections to ensure that you are paid appropriately for your work. See the Guild’s Span Guide for more.

Use the TV Weekly Pay Calculator to figure out the best deal for you and visit The Writers’ Deal Hub for additional resources for individual deal negotiations.