Contracts, Unions & Broadway

A recent piece in The New York Times detailed salaries for various crew members on Broadway productions, saying some stagehands receive bigger paychecks than the talented dancers, singers and actors trodding the boards.

Citing “documents submitted to the state attorney general’s office,” the Times said stagehands for “Spider-Man: Turn Off The Dark” were paid a total of $100,000 for one week’s work while the principals and members of the ensemble” were paid a total not quite reaching that six-figure mark. 

Other examples included the top five stagehands at Carnegie Hall receiving more than $400,000 each in compensation, and that stagehands working at places such as the Metropolitan Opera might take in more than $310,000 in wages and benefits.  In 2011 tax filings showed that the four top stagehands at the Met made more than $500,000 in total compensation, including “retirement and other benefits.”

One of the reasons given for six-figure salaries is that stagehands have unique skill sets that make replacing them difficult, plus their jobs can’t be outsourced.

Having a strong union doesn’t hurt either.  Many stagehands in New York City belong to Local 1 of the International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees.  Depending on the job and venue those union workers might be responsible for helping construct awesome sets with spectacular lighting while others might “do little more than load in orchestras and set up music stands.”

Saying stagehands responsibilities are “extremely complex, extremely high-tech and possibly extremely dangerous,” Fairfield University professor Martha S. LoMonaco told the Times, “They should not be viewed as the schleppers of the theater industry.”

Work rules are also a factor.  Citing an expired contract with the people running the Koch Theater, the newspaper pointed out that one of the rules required 22 stagehands for each paid performance.  If even one show was schedule outside the venue’s 39-week season, crewmembers are paid for the entire week. 

Another rule prohibited management from shopping for cheaper workers.

“Management may not replace men on a job in order to avoid payment of higher rates,” read one of the rules in the contract, according to the Times.  “The same men must be kept until the end of the call.”

Despite the seemingly high salaries, stagehands and their employers are not necessarily at odds with each other if only because each side relies on the other for success.  Shows need highly skilled stagehands to turn ideas, words and sets into visually stunning productions.  And stagehands need places to work, preferably steady work.

“We are very mindful of each other’s fragility,” Seth Popper, director of labor relations for the Broadway League, the organization repping producers and theater owners, told the Times. “We only work when we have a show.”