200K doesn't go that far in the screenwriting biz (not my gig; I have friends.) Yes, the cost-of-living is hella high on the Left Coast for one. For two, like schoolteachers, they aren't employed 52-weeks out of the year: in TV, they're employed (and paid) during the season, and when the show is on hiatus, so is their paycheck. They have WGA dues (which are worth it, but aren't low), pay their own medical (usually), and have to pay a number of willing consorts: the minimum is a lawyer, an agent, and an accountant (or all the money goes *away*, and they're dealing with a shitload of legal liability in the first place.) All these expenses precede food, shelter, and transportation.
They don't work eight-hour days. They don't get weekends off. Because of this, the next expense (and not everybody I know can afford one) is usually a PA, who is not as much a luxury as a case of: 'if somebody can't do the grocery shopping I'm going to starve.'
The job, while glamorous, is high-pressure and involves lots of emotional abuse, which, yeah, they kicked and clawed to *get* it, no lie, but it takes its toll, and everything you do to compensate for pressure, from go to the doctor to play video games, costs money. And the more pressure, the more compensation.
So maybe not quite at the poverty level, but 200K has a lot of calls on its time for WGA members...
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They don't work eight-hour days. They don't get weekends off. Because of this, the next expense (and not everybody I know can afford one) is usually a PA, who is not as much a luxury as a case of: 'if somebody can't do the grocery shopping I'm going to starve.'
The job, while glamorous, is high-pressure and involves lots of emotional abuse, which, yeah, they kicked and clawed to *get* it, no lie, but it takes its toll, and everything you do to compensate for pressure, from go to the doctor to play video games, costs money. And the more pressure, the more compensation.
So maybe not quite at the poverty level, but 200K has a lot of calls on its time for WGA members...