Holiday Pay Alert!

This post alerts you that your stand-in work around an upcoming holiday may qualify you for holiday pay!

About Holidays

Most SAG-AFTRA collective bargaining agreements (CBAs) include a list of recognized holidays.

What constitutes a “holiday” under a CBA is a subject negotiated by SAG-AFTRA and the other bargaining parties.

For example, Christmas Day is not a holiday in stand-in work done on that day unless it is recognized in the CBA as a holiday.

About Holiday Pay

When doing stand-in work on a holiday, sometimes stand-ins receive holiday pay, which pays higher than the normal rate of pay.

Under some SAG-AFTRA CBAs, such as the Theatrical Agreement and the Television Agreement, you can qualify for holiday pay if you work on the day before a holiday plus the day after the holiday.

For example, you might not work on Labor Day, but if you work on a production on the Friday before Labor Day, plus on that same production on the Tuesday after Labor Day, you will qualify for a holiday pay (under those CBAs). In that specific case, that usually means you qualify to receive a full day’s pay for Labor Day, even though you didn’t work on the holiday.

Qualifying for Holiday Pay

Whether or not you qualify for holiday pay depends upon the terms of the exact CBA under which you are working.

Not all SAG-AFTRA CBAs under which you work as a stand-in have the same negotiated holidays.

For example, if you work under the Network Television Code, it contains far fewer holidays than under the Theatrical Agreement or the Television Agreement. So, you could stand in on a holiday recognized under, say, the Theatrical Agreement and receive holiday pay, but if you stood in on a different production that same day under the Network Television Code, you might work at the base rate.

Conclusion

As you approach a possible holiday, consider the CBA you’re working under as a stand-in to see if it is recognized in the CBA as a holiday.

Your CBA might suggest you should take stand-in work on it on the day before the holiday and the day after in order to be paid for the holiday not work.

Or your CBA might show that the holiday doesn’t qualify for holiday pay because it’s not a negotiated holiday.

All in all, when it comes to holidays, around that time you can make some extra money for the same amount of work — or even less work! Keep watch of holidays as you accept offers to stand in.

If you have any questions about holiday pay on a SAG-AFTRA job, contact your local office of SAG-AFTRA.

Have a holiday question? Post it in the comments box below!