Corrections appended - Aug. 12
Ah, dear Strike Watch readers. I come to you a bit more
humbled than usual today. I’m just kicking myself because it turns out I
totally missed one of the best days of the year! I must have been so wrapped up
in planning for my luxurious, two-week staycation that I forgot about one of
my—and other guild watchers--fave holidays. For this I am truly sorry, and
thankful that Arlin Miller at SAG Watchdog remembered to celebrate the
occassion—albeit 11 days late.
Of course, I’m taking about LM2 Day, the day SAG files its
mandatory fiscal report with the Department of Labor. So much fun can be had
parsing through pages and pages listing SAG’s assets and liabilities. It’s like
learning the answers to everything you ever wanted to know about SAG’s finances
but had too much of a life to ask.
Let’s skip the foreplay and go directly to the creamy center
of the LM2: the salaries! Oh yes, imagine if the federal government decreed
that the corporation for which you work had to disclose everyone’s salaries
publicly. Wouldn’t you rush to compare what you, your boss, the CEO, Dave in
marketing, and that new girl who answers the phones take home before taxes? And
wouldn’t you want to jump out a window afterward?
For example, it turns out I finally make almost as much as the guild’s admin assistants! Sadly,
I’m still a few thousand shy of matching the switchboard operator’s salary.
Let’s hear it for my life choices!
But enough about my ever-useful degree in comparative
literature (with a minor in French, thank you very much). The prize for Highest
Paid SAG Employee goes to Doug Allen, who took home $456,416 in salary plus
$56,486 in “disbursements for official business.” That’s a total of $520,902 of
members’ money from May 1, 2007, to April 30, 2008. Over half a mil for one
year of representing SAG actors—the vast majority of whom do not make the
annual $13,790 minimum required to get basic guild
health insurance.
Depending on whom you believe, $500,000 is either twice or
five times the amount Allen and his compadres spent on the failed “Vote No”
campaign against AFTRA’s prime-time contract.
I’m not going to judge whether Doug Allen's services are worth that
much, especially since he has yet to achieve what he was hired to do: bargain a
new TV/Theatrical Contract. I say he’s worth every penny for coming up with the
soon-to-be-ubiquitous phrase “comprehensive counterproposal.”
This last spin around the sun, SAG had more
six-figure-earners walking its hallowed halls: 38 out of 457 employees made
more than $100,000, compared with 31 out of 382 employees in the previous year.
(At least someone’s hiring!)
Some notable members of the SAG sixers club [salary + “disbursements for official business] include John
McGuire, senior adviser, ($322,206); Pamm Fair,
deputy national executive director for policy and strategic planning ($234,139);
Pam Greenwalt, communications executive director and occasional spokeswoman ($201,649);
Duncan Crabtree-Ireland, general counsel, ($253,600); Peter Frank, CFO
($286,378); Tom LaGrua, contracts executive director ($189,711); and Todd
Amorde, national director of organizing ($140,351).
Come play the home game I call “Do You Make as Much as a SAG
Staff Member?” Just click here,
and enter “SAG” in the “union abbreviation” field. Don’t be shy--share your
findings in the comments section!
--Lauren Horwitch, who is rich in love
To be fair you could have also pointed out that 34 out of 231 AFTRA employees did the same to make up over 1/3rd of the payroll. Those 34 made $5,401,854 in total and that is without expenses. And AFTRA ended over $2m in the red. This was the top money maker; Kim Roberts NATIONAL EXEC DIR $333,558
Posted by: Yosemite Stokesberry | August 13, 2008 at 02:00 AM
I really enjoy your writing style. Very funny. Nice work!
Posted by: Miki Yamashita | August 13, 2008 at 03:11 AM
So, let's see...Doug Allen takes 1% of our dues money. For what???
Zero percent of a contract!
Posted by: The Obvious | August 13, 2008 at 10:52 AM