#marginadennis

I'm finding that many artists don't understand or ask for overtime because they think they will be perceived as greedy or not a team player. Many times things will not be offered to you unless you ask for them. I'm going to explain why defining work terms and asking for overtime or a higher flat rate payment is important.

For the longest time an 8 hour day for print and ten hour for video production was pretty standard and no one really tried to deviate from that. But now there is alot of expectation of people working for 12 hours straight and now I am seeing 14 hours creep in. The expectation is you are working without any additional payment of overtime because they are telling you a rate based on when they think they will wrap. You will also hear things like "You won't end up working that long" or "It's what everyone else is getting." What everyone is allegedly doing has no basis on you and it is the wording used to get you to go along with this. Let me try to explain to you what is actually happening when you agree to this types of terms:

Did you know when you fill out a timecard that is being used to pay you that it is based on an 8 hour day? If you are union artist, you already understand how it works. How many times had you heard "don't worry about filling out anything, I'll take care of the rest" because your money is not being calculated the way that you think so let me break it down for you. Unfortunately we have lost the battle of an 8 hour day with our pay being based on but the payroll is still calculated on that.

Say you have agreed to be paid $200/10. You think you are being paid $20/hour right? Wrong!!! You are actually getting $18.245 an hour...let me show you the math:

18.184 x 8 hours = 145.46

27.27(1.5) x 2 = 54.54

Equals $200 for 10 hours

So if you are agreeing to working a flat 12 you are actually getting around 16/ hour and 14/ hour if you are working $200/14.

If you are wondering what the big deal is...let me show you what you would actually be making if you negotiated $200/10. With overtime of (1.5) starting at 10 hours and double time (2.0) after 12 hours:

18.184 x 8 145.54

27.27 x. 4 = 109.08 $254.62 pay for 12hrs

36.37 x 2 = 73.74 $328.36 pay for 14hrs

And if you are working an 8-hour day $200/8, you are actually making $25.00 an hour. And this is what you would be making working overtime:

10-hour day (2 hours OT) $275.00

12-hour day (4 hours OT) $350.00

14-hour day (6 hours OT) $450.00

See how it is significantly more $$$?

Now if everyone in production is going along you can see how much they are not paying out!!!!

So if production is being adamant of you working a 12 or a14 hour day you should be adamant on getting a higher base pay or overtime. #themoreyouknow #dontgetmoneyscrewed

Love and Lipstick,

Margina