Stand-In Central has covered here the continuing issue of “split earnings” faced by SAG-AFTRA stand-ins now more than six years after the merger of SAG and AFTRA.
That issue, which affects theoretically every person working under a SAG-AFTRA collective bargaining agreement, was featured on Episode 37 of The Acting Income Podcast with Ben Hauck.
The title of the episode is “The Split-Earnings Problem: SAG-AFTRA’s Elephant in the Room.”
As host of the podcast, I walk you through the history of SAG and AFTRA and their 2012 push for a merger as the only means for merging their separated health plans and pension plans — a separation that meant that some members who earned good union incomes still did not achieve eligibility for health insurance or pension credits because their earnings were split between the separate plans.
While SAG and AFTRA’s health plans merged to become the SAG-AFTRA health plan in 2017 (nearly five years after the merger of the unions), as of May 2018 the pension plans have yet to merge.
I also allege a purposeful desire not to publicly communicate with SAG-AFTRA members and pension plan participants about the status of the split earnings problem — the “elephant in the room.”
It’s another deep-dive into a niche topic that directly relates to SAG-AFTRA stand-ins. You can download the episode on Apple Podcasts or your favorite podcast app.
The show notes for Episode 37 are available here:
http://actingincome.com/episode37
The episode is also available on YouTube here:
What did you think of the episode? What is your understanding of the split-earnings problem? Share your thoughts below!
Great job on this! Another very important topic to address. This is a big issue that I think is fading away in the minds of a lot of actors, and it’s just not on the surface anymore. It needs to be talked about. Thank you for doing this. It was very entertaining and I was intrigued the whole way through!