How To Use This Guide
Getting Started
From the home screen, click the section you want to start with: AFM, Area Standards, Commercials, DGA, L.A. Crew, etc.
Let’s select L.A. Crew to start.
You’ll be shown all the Locals, Agreements and Job Classifications for that section.
Note that you can click at the top of each of those columns to narrow down results, and the filtering is cumulative.
For example, here we are seeking out rates for Local 706 – Makeup and Hair in the IATSE Basic Agreement – West Coast.
We end up with all the job classifications for the local, which is usually sufficient… but note that we could narrow this down further to one particular job classification, let’s say Wigmaker Class II.
Move to a different section by rolling over the Section Menu in the top grey bar.
We’ve rolled over the Area Standards section.
It’s important to note that many localities throughout the United States, not covered by the West Coast Basic Agreement or New York locals, are governed by the Area Standards Agreement. States fall under two categories:
- “Maryland” Rates
California (outside San Diego, outside the jurisdiction of Local 16 and outside the scope of the Basic Agreement), Florida, Maryland and Michigan - “Non-Maryland” Rates
Alabama, Alaska, Arkansas, Colorado, Georgia, Idaho, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Minnesota, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, Nevada (outside of Las Vegas), New Mexico, North Carolina, North Dakota, Ohio*, Oklahoma, Oregon, Pittsburgh (PA), Puerto Rico**, San Diego, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, U.S. Virgin Islands, Utah, Virginia, Washington State, West Virginia, Wisconsin and Wyoming - Other Areas
Other states with their own rates are the Northeast Corridor group of Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Rhode Island and Vermont. Additionally, Washington D.C. has its own rates. - You’ll find rates for all these areas under the Area Standards Agreement section of our Labor Guide.
Note that if you’d rather just see all of the rates in the guide at once, you can select Show All in the Section Menu (grey bar at the top of the screen). Then you can narrow down from there, or scroll through all 3,847 rates at once!
Other Random Stuff
What is the Labor Guide, exactly?
The Labor Guide is an abbreviated set of minimum union scale rates as defined by ratified agreements between entertainment labor unions and producers. Rates in the Labor Guide are not guaranteed to be accurate, and are for rough budgeting purposes only. When it comes to paying your crew and cast, the only accurate source of minimum rates is the negotiated agreement you have signed with the applicable union.
What the Labor Guide is not
As mentioned above, the Labor Guide is not a definitive resource for paying your crew or cast properly.
Additionally, the Labor Guide does not list any “going rates.” While some geographic areas may have rates that are typically paid for particular positions, we do not collect any such rates or list them here.
By law, every employee has the right to freely negotiate their rate of pay with their employer, as well as their hours, within the bounds of state and federal wage-and-hour law. When an agreement has been reached between a labor union and a bargaining unit representing a group of employers (in this case, producers and studios), this serves to establish working conditions (rules) and minimum rates of pay for union member employees doing work subject to the particular agreement. There is nothing stopping union employees from negotiating rates of pay higher than the minimums set by the agreement.