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Pay gap Project Final Speech

Andrexa Peluso

03/16/2021

Introduction

The American acting scene has seen various stakeholders and contributors take part in the development and creation of various films and theatre production. This has seen the expansion of the industry into global dimensions with the inclusion of other diverse cultures such as Asian actors, among others. However, there has been a bone of contention in the manner in which remuneration of the various actors has significant difference to their fellow American actors in the industry. This discussion is driven towards highlighting the differences in pay between actors from the two cultures within the industry and what contributes to this. The paper also discusses the activism and how stakeholders have championed for improving this situation for the current and near future.

The arts industry has seen its development from early stages to the current forms of cultural diversity that includes the involvement of various actors. Despite working in favorable conditions and being given equal opportunities, the same could not e said when it comes to the remuneration of these actors. Over the years, actors in theatre and film production have seen the unequal remuneration of these actors despite the equal contribution in term of script writing or even acting of scenes. this has created a lot of debate regarding the unfairness and bias the industry has in the manner that actors are treated in terms of what they are offered in pay as compared to their fellow American actors.

There are several causes that bring about these differences in the media. They have been used as the justification behind the reason as to why there exists this disparity among actors pay. One of the reasons for this is the experience in terms of storyline that are usually popular and appealing to the audience. Majority of the storylines in theatre in American production usually consists of storylines that relate to the lifestyle of natives which tend to be different in terms of culture and background than Asian actors. As such, certain times this does not hold water as pay does not concern itself with the role they have played in the production. Needless to say, this does not sufficiently correlate with the huge discrepancies in pay.

There is also the argument that the differences in pay are as a result of this being a new perspective and era of inclusion after years of being diverse in terms of native African American and American actors themselves. This as such means that there will be an existing bias, not out of ill will but due to years of the arts fraternity being less diverse. This has seen the development of theatre and film to international levels while the remuneration of actors remains the same regardless. As such, this calls for change in policies and strategies that are being used to consider remuneration to be equal across all actors in order to promote equal pay. These policies will ensure that Asian actors are given equal pay and there is a means for them to be able to protest such unfairness.