Pension, Health & Fringes
Here's the number that surprises every first-time union producer: an actor never costs you just their wage. On top of scale sits pension & health and other fringes — and if you budget the wage alone, you'll be short on your biggest cast line.
Last chapter covered scale — the wage. This chapter covers the part that sits on top of it, and it's the single most common budgeting miss for new union producers. When you hire a SAG-AFTRA performer, you don't just pay their wage; you also pay a contribution toward their pension and health (P&H), plus standard payroll fringes. Budget the wage alone and your cast line will be meaningfully — sometimes painfully — short.
What pension & health is
SAG-AFTRA members earn retirement and healthcare benefits through their work, and those benefits are funded by employer contributions. So when you employ a union actor, part of the deal is that you contribute a set percentage of their wages to the union's pension and health plans. It's calculated as a percentage on top of what you pay the performer — the actor doesn't see it in their paycheck; it goes to the plans on their behalf. Think of it exactly like the crew fringes from the Budgeting course, but for your cast.
The true cost of a union actor
The exact percentages depend on your agreement and where you shoot, but the shape is universal: the real cost of an actor is their wage plus a chunk on top — often a meaningful double-digit percentage once P&H and payroll taxes combine. Always budget the full stack, never the wage alone. This is the number that catches people out.
The other fringes
- Employer payroll taxes. As an employer, you owe the standard payroll taxes on wages — the same as for any employee.
- Payroll service fees. Most union productions use a payroll company to handle union reporting, contributions, and pay. They charge a fee — and they're worth it (below).
- Overtime and penalties. When these push wages up (Chapters 6 and 10), P&H and taxes rise with them, because they're percentages of wages.
- Other contributions your specific agreement may require. Confirm the full list for your tier.
Use a payroll company
For union work, a specialized entertainment payroll company is close to essential. They calculate scale, overtime, and P&H; they file the union contributions correctly and on time; they handle the tax paperwork; and they keep you compliant. Yes, they charge a percentage — but for a union production, doing this yourself is a compliance minefield. Budget the payroll fee as a normal cost of going union, and let the specialists handle the reporting so you don't accidentally underpay the plans and land in trouble.
My first union budget had a beautiful, tidy cast line — actors' wages, totaled, done. Then my line producer added P&H and payroll taxes on top and the number jumped by a chunk I hadn't planned for. It wasn't a disaster only because we caught it in prep, not on payday. Ever since, I budget cast the way I budget crew: never the raw wage, always wage-plus-fringes. And I always use a payroll house for union shoots — the fee is trivial next to the cost of misreporting contributions to the plans. If you remember one thing from this chapter: an actor's wage is not an actor's cost. Add the stack on top, every time.
You now know what union talent truly costs. But there's a way to bring non-union actors onto your union project too — legally — and it has a famous name. Next: Taft-Hartley.
SAG-AFTRA runs on paperwork — agreements, cast contracts, Taft-Hartley reports, time sheets. The Contract Assistant helps you generate and track the right documents so nothing gets missed and you stay compliant.