The Costume Designers Guild is launching a new campaign to advocate for equal pay.
This week, IATSE (International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees, the union representing on-set creatives) Local 892 announced that it would begin its Pay Equity Now campaign, which points out the disparities between costume designers and other male-dominated film and TV departments.
According to the Guild, its members — who include costume designers, assistants and illustrators that are over 87% female and more than 20% LGBTQ+ — are 65% lower on the IATSE pay scale than other male-led departments, such as camera operators and production designers.
“Within an industry that prides itself on creativity and inclusivity, this glaring wage gap highlights an urgent need for change, one that the CDG has decided to take action towards. This movement seeks to expand upon the #NakedWithoutUs campaign that the Costume Designers Guild has used for the past several years to bring attention to this inequity,” the campaign said in a statement, per Deadline.
According to the guild, their data based on a 60-hour work week shows that a costume designer’s pay rate — using the IATSE Basic Agreement, which serves as a guideline for how studios pay their crew members — is about 30% lower than the next highest creative department head.
Additionally, the guild is seeing the pay gap widen as AMPTP (Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers, the group that represents Hollywood studios in negotiations) does not properly adjust its pay scale for costume designers, it said.
“When each IATSE scale rate gets the same percentage increase annually it compounds to a much greater disparity between positions over time. Costume designers are the lowest paid of all the creative department heads working on a film or TV set,” the guild told the outlet.
This campaign comes amid ongoing labor movements within the film and TV industry. After months of a dual strike with the actors’ and writers’ guilds, other creatives, such as musicians, are advocating for higher pay — and for studios to better deal with issues relating to streaming services and AI (artificial intelligence).
Terry Ann Gordon, the president of the guild, said that the group is willing to “push this conversation until we see real change.”
“Members of the CDG and leaders of our Pay Equity Now movement will not sit idly by as this glaring injustice persists,” she said. “Costume designers, assistant costume designers and costume illustrators have taken it upon themselves to lead this dialogue, putting this strong message in front of the eyes that are most important when it comes to tangible change.”
