Hollywood’s Pay Gap and Why We Need to Talk About It

*Whew*, Okay Now That’s Over, Let’s Talk Hollywood

So we know that it is illegal to discriminate and pay less based on gender for positions that are similar in description or title. We know that this still happens anyway. Exhibit A:

Hollywood, like every other industry, experiences a pretty substantial pay gap. In the 2016 X-Files mini-series reboot Gillian Anderson was offered half of David Ducovney’s pay, like she was given in the 1990s. Jennifer Lawrence wrote in an essay how she was called a “spoiled brat” in the Sony emails that were leaked over trying to do pay negotiations that literally every male actor in Hollywood does with no problem. 

I’m sure you remember how Patricia Arquette used her Academy Award acceptance speech for Best Supporting Actress in 2015 to call on Hollywood to get rid of the wage gap. If you don’t, I don’t think we can be friends anymore. 

This transparency in talking about her pay and her inequity caused her to lose profitable acting work over her statements after she did so. Therefore, Arquette published new remarks today over this issue. She wrote a Washington Post op-ed discussing her experiences with inequal pay and how things need to be done to fix it. These are just incidental anecdotes, but there is way more to the issue.

So…what now, Hollywood?

Pay transparency and protections for workers has been found to be one of the most effective strategies to fix pay gap issues across industries. Despite it being illegal to be fired or discriminated against for discussing pay under section seven of the National Labor Relations Act, federal enforcement (just like in the case of the gender pay gap) is very weak. There is good news, however. In states that explicitly outlaw pay secrecy, the gender pay gap is smaller than in states that have not explicitly banned it (Kim 2015).

Bradley Cooper, one of JLaw’s frequent co-stars, called for Hollywood to implement more pay transparency for those part of the system. It is not “vulgar” to talk about pay (looking at you, Kate Winslet). It’s one of the best strategies, outside of the paternalistic regulation that is not going to happen in our country of “freedum” and “state’s rights,” to fix the gender pay gap.

Because #EqualPayDay is just reminding us that in every vocation, including Hollywood, women aren’t yet considered worthy of the pay given their male counterparts.

Perhaps someday, we will be.