““We really think it’s important that when companies tell us they can’t afford it or it doesn’t work for their business model that we need to look at what they’re doing with executive compensation and actually call them out for the inconsistency and hypocrisy that that reflects.””
As hanging Hollywood writers and actors ask for greater wages and assurances round using synthetic intelligence, one in all their leaders on Thursday joined the AFL-CIO in unveiling the union alliance’s annual report on govt pay.
SAG-AFTRA National Executive Director and Chief Negotiator Duncan Crabtree-Ireland stated throughout a digital news convention highlighting Paywatch, this yr’s report and web site from the AFL-CIO, that the problem of extreme compensation amongst media and leisure executives “has really come to the forefront especially when you have CEOs who are telling us it’s ‘unrealistic’ to demand things like minimum-wage increases that account for inflation when you could see… they’re not worried about the impact of inflation… for themselves.”
He was referring to current feedback by Disney
DIS,
CEO Bob Iger, who just lately stated throughout a tv interview in regards to the Hollywood strikes that “there’s a level of expectation that [writers and actors] have that is just not realistic.”
See: SAG president Fran Drescher hits again at Disney CEO Bob Iger’s strike feedback
This yr’s AFL-CIO report, which relies on firms’ publicly reported govt compensation for 2022, exhibits that chief executives of S&P 500 firms obtained a median $16.7 million in complete compensation final yr. The common pay of the CEOs of the leisure firms which might be members of the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers was greater: $35 million, in accordance with Brandon Rees, the AFL-CIO’s deputy director of Corporations and Capital Markets, in the course of the news convention.
Meanwhile, the typical hourly pay for an actor within the U.S. was $36.06 in May 2022, in accordance with the newest authorities information.
From our archives (April 2022): Why do bosses just like the ‘Pity City’ CEO appear so out of contact? The rising CEO-to-worker pay hole could provide a clue.
The Paywatch report additionally highlighted the general CEO-to-worker pay ratio final yr, which was 272-to-1.
“We think it’s particularly important to be aware of the role of CEO pay in economic inequality as these CEOs are rushing to implement artificial intelligence in their business models,” Rees stated. “And the question is: Are we going to use artificial intelligence to raise working people’s living standards and make working people more productive by giving them a voice in how artificial intelligence is used in the workplace?”
Hollywood writers and actors have talked about their issues in regards to the results of AI on their work, and the AFL-CIO confused Thursday that that concern cuts throughout most industries.
“Performers are being asked to sign away the rights to their own likeness as a condition of employment so that the studios can add to their profits by digitally creating new content without them,” stated AFL-CIO Secretary-Treasurer Fred Redmond on the news convention. “Writers not writing. Actors not acting. And their fight is our fight.”
For their half, the studios and streaming companies represented by AMPTP have stated that their AI proposal “protects performers’ digital likenesses, including a requirement for performer’s consent for the creation and use of digital replicas or for digital alterations of a performance.” In the case of writers, the AMPTP has stated it’s dedicated to discussing AI points with the Writers Guild of America.
See: Netflix criticized for posting AI jobs paying as much as $900,000 whereas writers and actors are on strike
Also: Actors, writers, resort housekeepers and grad-student staff are all hanging for a similar purpose
Source web site: www.marketwatch.com
