Actors’ Equity Association Releases Latest Diversity and Inclusion Hiring Bias Report
Actors’ Equity Association has released the union’s third diversity and inclusion hiring bias report, tracking the demographics of how its members are hired for acting and stage management work, and how much they were paid in the year 2020.
“2020 was obviously an outlier year; our industry was among the hardest hit by COVID, and work weeks were nowhere close to the norm. But 2020 was also the year in which theatrical leaders across the country loudly and collectively promised to do better, so we felt it was important to continue our work tracking hiring bias,” said Kate Shindle, president of Actors’ Equity Association. “We are disappointed by the realities of the data: while there was some incremental progress here and there in 2020, the theatre fell far short of fulfilling its promises of diverse and inclusive hiring."
Key findings for 2020 include:
- While men and women tend to find employment in roughly equal numbers nationwide, men tended to earn more than women for the same amount of work, and more still than non-binary members.
- The percentage of contracts going to members of color increased marginally between 2016-2019 to 2020, from 21.50% to 24.77%.
- Members of color nationally earned an average of 91.80% of what white members made per week.
- Stage manager jobs continue to go most often to white workers, and stark pay gaps persist along both racial and gender lines.
- Members who are disabled, transgender or over 65 tend to earn less than the industry average.