Recently I came across an interesting post while I was scrolling through my timeline on Twitter regarding the show "black-ish", which airs on ABC. The tweet talked about an ongoing disagreement between one of the stars on the show, Tracee Ellis Ross, and some of the producers of the show over her salary for the next few seasons. Apparently, during her renegotiation for the upcoming seasons of the show Ross requested a higher salary than the one she was already receiving. While I was looking up on other articles and posts that talked about this issue I found out that if the producers were to increase her salary that it would surpass that of Anthony Anderson, who is the lead star, producer, and basically the one who started the whole show.
I just thought this was very interesting considering the current status of women in the work field, including industries like the film industry, where women have made it a priority to receive equal pay in comparison to men who are on involved in the same line of work. I also felt that this situation had a perfect correlation to the class and the title of the class involving both "gender" and "media". Does anyone else feel that Ross requesting higher salary than Anderson might be a bit extreme considering that he has a hand in much more than just the acting? Or is it fair for her to request a higher pay? I think this can go either way for the simple fact that Tracee -Ellis Ross is such a top of the line actress and role on the show is just as important as any other.
I'd love to know what everyone else thinks!! Here's the link: http://people.com/tv/tracee-ellis-ross-black-ish-pay-disparity/
I feel like this is tricky because there are so many factors at play- the role they serve on the show, gender, their star statuses. As leads of the show, it seems like it would make sense for Ross and Anderson to get equal pay. But it also makes sense for Anderson to be compensated for his work as producer. I was looking up the actors and it looks like since starting on Black-ish, Ross has won Golden Globe and NAACP awards- perhaps part of the reason for her renegotiation is her increasing value to the show as an actress. On her Twitter, Ross also has made it sound like this wasn't something she intended to be a public affair. So I'd like to think given all that it's at least fair for her to ask for more compensation for her work as an actor, but maybe not to the extent of surpassing Anderson's as he does also serve as a producer. (Here's a link to the Twitter: https://twitter.com/TraceeEllisRoss/status/954919199339458561/photo/1?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.huffingtonpost.com%2Fentry%2Ftracee-ellis-ross-on-black-ish-pay-disparity-i-want-compensation-that-matches-my-contribution_us_5a660841e4b002283004f870)
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