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WME Assistants Now Being Paid Like Teenage Babysitters
The William Morris Assistants Lose Pay So the Endeavor Kids Won't Feel Bad
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PandoraSpocks
07/29/09

In reply to WME Assistants Now Being Paid Like Teenage Babysitters
Okay, I'll say it: I love Entourage. Especially Lloyd.
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dirtydeer
07/28/09

In reply to WME Assistants Now Being Paid Like Teenage Babysitters
As Sally Field reaches the top of those dark, polished stairs, right in front of the old William Morris portrait, she quietly holds up a sign. The clattering of the assistants' keyboards quiets as they all look up to read, "WHERE'S MY LATTE?"
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Trulymadlyme
07/28/09

In reply to WME Assistants Now Being Paid Like Teenage Babysitters
a mandatory 50 hour work week

I hope they're paying overtime!
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kimsama
07/28/09

@Trulymadlyme: Wow, yeah -- I hate to be a nerd, but overtime pay is federally mandated for all non-exempt employees who work more than 40 hours/week.

There are companies that try to claim non-exempt employees are exempt (so that they can screw them out of overtime), but the U.S. Dept. of Labor doesn't like that too much.

I wonder if anyone there would be pissed off enough (or know enough about FLSA) to blow the whistle and trigger an audit?
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Edited by kimsama at 07/28/09 9:44 AM kimsama was starred kimsama was unstarred

Trulymadlyme
07/28/09

@kimsama: Yeah, an FLSA class action with punitive damages could seriously blow up in this agency's face. I've seen it happen so many freaking times.
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Trulymadlyme
07/28/09

With few exceptions, to be exempt an employee must (a) be paid at least $23,600 per year ($455 per week), and (b) be paid on a salary basis, and also (c) perform exempt job duties. These requirements are outlined in the FLSA Regulations.

/nerdery.
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Edited by Trulymadlyme at 07/28/09 9:57 AM Trulymadlyme was starred Trulymadlyme was unstarred

Hiphopopotamus
07/28/09

@kimsama: No one will say a thing - they all know there are 1000 people willing to do their job for even less pay than they are making now.

Fear will keep them tethered to their desks.
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bess marvin, girl detective
07/28/09

@kimsama: paradigm hasn't paid their assistants overtime since the strike, but they do get that hour and a half lunch!!
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Edited by bess marvin, girl detective at 07/28/09 11:17 AM

Kitten_Witawip
07/28/09

@Hiphopopotamus: Not always. Someone who is pissed off enough will blow the whistle. Whether or not WME can keep up this for very long is the real question.
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Trulymadlyme
07/28/09

@Kitten_Witawip: Considering the amount of attorney's fees on the table here, I'm shocked there aren't plaintiff's lawyers salivating over the chance to take this sort of case on.
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Blue Plate Special
07/28/09

@Trulymadlyme: Depending on how the agency operates, that might be how the assistants make a semi-living wage. Back in the day (~7 years ago) I worked at a big entertainment PR firm where I went from being the receptionist to an assistant. When I quit my Swimming With Sharks-esque boss was stunned to learn that I was making a whopping 28K a year (apparently receptionists were paid better than assistants). "Don't you think that's a big...much?" she asked me. Yeah, lady...I am rolling real deep under the poverty line.

However, while working for her she was always encouraging me to jack up my hours to make overtime money on the back end, explaining that that was how everyone in the department was able to afford to live.
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EsotericPopCulturePun
07/28/09

In reply to WME Assistants Now Being Paid Like Teenage Babysitters
my first job in the entertainment (music) industry i was making $22,000 a year in NYC which comes out to about $10.50 an hour if you're working 40 hour weeks. I was working more than that.

This was also a few years back during that boom in the economy. I lasted sans trust fund or second job, but it wasn't fun.

That's just how it works. I moved out and moved on. It just wasn't worth it. I'd rather be able to afford to see a show and buy some beers than have somebody throw me on the list and drink water the whole night.
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The Real JR
07/28/09

@EsotericPopCulturePun: I thoroughly agree with this person. Assisting in the music industry is akin to a sort of slavery in which there are superficial perks but not really. You have to live with your parents, you become a sort of succubus and then you turn into these bloodthirsty A&R and other such executives who screw everyone below you because you had to be fucking STARVING for the first 5 years being in the periphery of the real money and copious pussy... it's a terrible system.
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ChillbearLatrigue
07/28/09

In reply to WME Assistants Now Being Paid Like Teenage Babysitters
You might look at this as barely livable wages, but I see it as a 10%, 9% and 16.7% raise successively. That's what above cost of living increases. Think of how proud you'll be to tell your 11 roommates that you got a 16.7% increase after just three years with the company. That is if you have the balls to ask for the max.
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skt.smth
07/28/09

@ChillbearLatrigue: Yeah, if they don't sell your share of the apartment to the one remaining can of pork and beans in the cupboard.
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sanyucat
07/28/09

In reply to WME Assistants Now Being Paid Like Teenage Babysitters
As far as I can tell, the only thing funny about 'Entourage' is that it's supposed to be a comedy.
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skt.smth
07/28/09

@sanyucat: It was possible to be entertained by the show for the first season, maybe two, if you could take the boneheaded fratboy atmospherics. But after a while, the available plot directions sort of dry up. OMG is Vince's career going to boom or bust? But if it really busts, can the show go on? If he becomes a mega-superstar and "wins the game," can the show really go on? There just isn't a whole lot of room to move in the premise of the series.
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skt.smth
07/28/09

In reply to WME Assistants Now Being Paid Like Teenage Babysitters
Considering I basically make the upper capped yearly wages of a WME assistant for working less than 20 functional hours a week (the rest are desk hours), I have to say they're getting a pretty raw deal.
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OopsRecession
07/28/09

In reply to WME Assistants Now Being Paid Like Teenage Babysitters
Are these supposed to be surprising numbers for media jobs?
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DahlELama
07/28/09

@OopsRecession: What bothers me is not that the numbers are low--hell, I don't make much more--but that assistants from WM had to take a pay cut in the merger so that they wouldn't out-earn their peers at Endeavor, and these are the numbers they came up with. If a newly hired assistant at WM made 13, then there were likely some who made close to 20. Now the top earners have been brought down to 14, and I'm guessing there's more than enough money left over post-pay cut that no one should be making only 10, but of course there's no way that extra cash is going to lowly assistants, even though their salary is the pool it came from in the first place.
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PaisleyPajamas
07/28/09

In reply to WME Assistants Now Being Paid Like Teenage Babysitters
Employed at WME less than 1 year - $10/hr

Employed at WME 1-2 years - $11/hr A whopping additional $2,080 a year--don't spend it all at Taco Bell!

Employed at WME 2-3 years - $12/hr Oh, Oh! Now your talkin'! $4,160!!! You can afford to put gas in your car and actually DRIVE yourself to work!

Employed at WME 3 years or more - capped at $14 hour. Oh, baby. Another $8,320 and you can afford to have a pet, but not one that needs to be fed. We're talking air plant or fish in a bowl that eat "flakes."

THIS is why I stay in Austin and write my guts out hoping someone just throws a big check my way. Sheesh. Film school, be damned.
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Edited by PaisleyPajamas at 07/28/09 1:39 AM PaisleyPajamas was starred PaisleyPajamas was unstarred

skahammer
07/28/09

@PaisleyPajamas: Expecting to have a pet? Look, this isn't a game for those with aristocratic upbringings.
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Edited by skahammer at 07/28/09 8:17 AM skahammer was starred skahammer was unstarred

FeyBoohoozer
07/28/09

In reply to WME Assistants Now Being Paid Like Teenage Babysitters
Would I have a 30 minute lunch hour or the have they cut that down to 25?
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happymisanthrope promoted this comment FeyBoohoozer was starred FeyBoohoozer was unstarred

happymisanthrope
07/28/09

@FeyBoohoozer: Oh, no it will still be officially 30 minutes. But those assistants who are out for more than 5 minutes aren't going to get that dollar to two dollar raise.
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WackoJacko
07/28/09

In reply to WME Assistants Now Being Paid Like Teenage Babysitters
I could TOTALLY rock 26Gs a year.

(and I'd really like to as I am currently unemployed)
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MissNormaDesmond
07/28/09

@WackoJacko: Are you currently living in L.A. or N.Y.? Because if so, it's amazing you could afford that salary and a place to live.
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Edited by MissNormaDesmond at 07/28/09 3:42 AM MissNormaDesmond was starred MissNormaDesmond was unstarred

skt.smth
07/28/09

@MissNormaDesmond: The good thing is that, if you're working those sorts of hours, you don't really need a place to live. Just sleep in a bus station and tidy up at the YMCA or something.
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The Recession Is Over
07/28/09

@skt.smth: Funny you say that... that's basically what I did when I was reped by ICM.
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WackoJacko
07/28/09

@MissNormaDesmond: I live in New York. It definitely wouldn't be easy. You'd have to budget within an inch of your life with two or three roommates but it's doable.
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MissNormaDesmond
07/28/09

@WackoJacko: You are a frugaler person than I.
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IamnotStarJones
07/28/09

In reply to WME Assistants Now Being Paid Like Teenage Babysitters
do they still get benefits?
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Foster Kamer
07/28/09

@IamnotStarJones: Almost no question, you would've heard about it already otherwise. Typically don't kick in until after three months...
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Krashstar
06/19/09

In reply to The William Morris Assistants Lose Pay So the Endeavor Kids Won't Feel Bad
They great thing about wages this low is that there's no need to get upset that you're prostituting yourself. Because, you know, prostitutes get paid.
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NowAvailableinExtraStrength
06/19/09

In reply to The William Morris Assistants Lose Pay So the Endeavor Kids Won't Feel Bad
When I as a youngster just starting out we got $.50 an hour and we had to go out and find 13 year-olds for Charlie Chaplin to have sex with.
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If_I_Had_a_Poodle
06/20/09

@NowAvailableinExtraStrength: applause
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secretagentman
06/19/09

In reply to The William Morris Assistants Lose Pay So the Endeavor Kids Won't Feel Bad
This is the way it's been since Lew Wasserman was in short pants. If you want to be a successful agent, it's part of the career. If you don't like it, hit the bricks, because there is always someone who will do it.
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bboston88
06/19/09

@secretagentman: That's the theory and that's exactly why I hit the bricks. Best decision ever, I still have a soul.
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If_I_Had_a_Poodle
06/20/09

@bboston88 (star please?): and that goes a long way toward explaining the crap the entertainment industry turns out ...
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forwardmotion
06/20/09

@secretagentman: Whatever.
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