Thread by @AmirTalai

Inspired by #PayUpHollywood, I took my agent's and manager's assistants out for dinner to talk to them about the way they and their colleagues are treated.

Please read.

A few takeaways, not in any order:

Most agents and managers have no idea how hard it is for assistants to make ends meet.

Even if they understood, it's unlikely they'd self-reflect and increase assistant pay, absent a push from assistants/clients/society at large.
#PayUpHollywood

No assistants intend to remain assistants, because being an assistant means long hours for little pay. They see their job as a stepping stone to a different job. This could change if assistants were paid fairly.

#PayUpHollywood

There is massive turnover in the assistant world, because assistants either get burned out or do whatever they can to move up the ladder. This would likely change if assistants were paid fairly.

#PayUpHollywood

Assistants get paid ~$3k a month for ~10hr days. The assistants I spoke with said a raise to $4k a month would be an absolute game-changer for them, and such an amount would be very small in comparison to the massive talent deals they help negotiate every day.

#PayUpHollywood

According to rentjungle.com, avg rent for a 1BR apt in LA is $2500.

How do these assts make it work? One pools funds with her fiancé and the other pays less than market rate for a place owned by friends. Others they work with are supported by parents.

#PayUpHollywood

The online conversations started by #PayUpHollywood feel similar to the conversations around #MeToo and #YesAllWomen, in that they make the marginalized feel less alone, and they allow the privileged to learn about the marginalized.

Assistants appreciate when bosses who don't pay them well at least treat them well. My mgr mentors his asst and brings her into his creative process (he also produces).

The assistants I spoke with really appreciate that. They'd also like to be paid better.

#PayUpHollywood

Assistants have no sense whether clients care about their treatment. I bet it's unlikely most actors give it any thought. As passionate as I am about the labor movement in general and wrt to Hollywood, I had no clue just how poorly they were treated til recently.
#PayUpHollywood

I said I don't like that I benefit from their mistreatment. They were confused -- "We may be underpaid, but that's not on you, you're not our boss."
"I'm not your boss, but you do work for me. And your boss has more time to give me attention due to your mistreatment."
Them: 🤯

Assistants make this town run. If suddenly every assistant took the day off, the town -- the industry -- would come to a standstill.

#PayUpHollywood

An assistant's labor union doesn't feel like it would work, since assistants don't identify as assistants-- they identify as future agents, future directors, future showrunners, etc.

[this could change if assistants were paid fairly]

#PayUpHollywood

Hard to know how the movement to drive up asst pay will progress. It does feel like the movement would have to be driven by assts, but given their undersized power and lack of formal organization, bosses and clients might do better insisting on better pay.
#PayUpHollywood

Wages for assistants over the last 20 years have been going DOWN, and upward mobility is stagnating. It is not as easy to move up the ladder as it once was.

#PayUpHollywood

There's a misogynistic element at play here too. Most assts and interns are women. Women are traditionally taught to accept mistreatment and not talk about it. Thankfully, more and more women are speaking up (more please) and being listened to (MORE PLEASE).

#PayUpHollywood

Much like #MeToo, this conversation will need to get to a boiling point of frustration before anything concrete/widespread is done. The assts asked me to continue to have this conversation with fellow actors and writers, to help that boiling point come sooner.
#PayUpHollywood

In addition to the articles being written in the trades about #PayUpHollywood, I def recommend you follow #PayUpHollywood creator @LizAlps, and listen to @johnaugust's podcast ep about the issue
johnaugust.com/2019/assistant…