In this short instructional video, Aaron Marcus explains the SAG term "scale plus 10" for union actors. He distinguishes union versus non‑union pay structures, provides typical SAG scale rates for TV commercials, day‑player film work, three‑day contracts, and weekly contracts, and clarifies that "scale plus 10" means the production adds a 10% agent commission on top of the actor's scale rate, so the actor incurs no out‑of‑pocket agent fee. Marcus emphasizes that these rates are approximate and can vary by network, and encourages viewers to like, comment, and share their own experiences with scale or scale‑plus‑10 arrangements.
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Hi, I'm Aaron Marcus, and welcome to another quick tip series. This one is about a term that you might not be really familiar with, and it's called scale plus 10. Now, if you are a non-union actor, then there is no such thing as scale, and every job that you do is negotiated. Every job that you do, you could be getting paid, you know, various amounts of money. Now, for union jobs, not to say they can't all be negotiated, but there are some basic pay rates that actors get. And most actors, you know, unless you've reached a certain level, you're not getting above scale. So just to give you a couple of examples, like for instance, the scale rate for doing a TV commercial is $627.75. Now while you're watching this, just to let you know, you know, these fees change, you know, over the years. And so you could always check the SAG website to To find out the exact one, but as of today, that's what the fee is. Now, you certainly— that's just your base rate for doing the commercial. There's a whole lot of other money involved that depends on where it's airing, how long it's running, and things like that. But that's the base pay. Scale for working on a, let's say, a film, television show, it's about $880 if you work 1 day. If you are a day player, that's scale. If you work 3 days, you have a 3-day contract, it's like $222.70. If you have a week contract, it's about $3,053, I believe. And also, just so you know, some networks pay different amounts. They have different pay scales. The amounts that I'm giving you, like, they're not set in stone. It's a pretty good ballpark idea of what you would get unless you're getting above scale. So if you ever do a job and they talk about scale plus 10, what that means is you will get paid your scale rate, but they will add 10% on top of that, which is what you will be paying your agent. So the actor really doesn't have any out-of-pocket expenses if they're getting scale plus 10. Normally a union actor will pay an agent a 10% commission fee, uh, you know, and it's based on what the actor has made. But if you get scale plus 10, Then the production company will pay the additional 10% that goes, you know, to the agent. So if you ever book a job and it's scale plus 10, congratulations. That means you are keeping everything and you're not paying any additional fees to your agent. I'm Aaron Marcus. If you're watching this on YouTube, please give it a thumbs up. If you're watching this on my Facebook page, please like the page. That way you can continue to get more acting and modeling information sent to you. And if you've ever had any experiences with scale, with scale plus 10, anything like that, please leave us a note. I'd love to hear what your experiences have been. I'm Aaron Marcus, looking forward to talking with you again soon.
