[gamblor956]

Like most project based employees, writers make their money when they work, and nothing when they don't.

This means that the years they are making an "average" of $260k needs to offset the years when they aren't landing any writing gigs at all.

And indeed, this is part of how Hollywood pay is structured: the seemingly inflated pay is adjusted for the fact that the work itself is highly sporadic.

[prepend]

> Like most project based employees, writers make their money when they work, and nothing when they don't.

Isn’t this all jobs though? I don’t get paid when I don’t work either. I’m not sure how to fix this as no one is going to pay someone when they aren’t working.

I’ve done software contracting and it’s super common to not get paid when you don’t have work and to bank a cushion to compensate for this. This is a huge chunk of the economy and includes lawyers, plumbers, electricians, etc.

Also, good people in this field aren’t sporadically employed and keep a pretty good book of business. If my attorney went a year without work, she would probably change careers as that means something is wrong.

[gamblor956]

Isn’t this all jobs though? I don’t get paid when I don’t work either.

This is the crux of the issue for writers: what used to be single, extended year-long gig in the age of broadcast TV has become a series of short-term gigs lasting a few months.

Each show writing gig lasts about 2-3 months for streaming, 3-4 months for network half-season, or 5-6 months for network full-season. (These timelines reflect the duration the writer is employed; the show's full pre-production and post-production timeframes are usually a lot longer than this.)

Also, good people in this field aren’t sporadically employed and keep a pretty good book of business.

This is definitely false. Variety and The Hollywood Reporter have interviewed a number of writers as part of this strike. A number of former showrunners of successful broadcast shows and film blockbusters have been affected by this. It's not an issue of "book of business" like it is with other industries; the problem is that the work itself is simply much shorter in duration than it was in the past.

For comparison: it would be as if your coding projects that used to last for a few months now only lasted for a few days, but you got paid the same rate by unit of time as you did before (i.e., you now only get paid $5k for what once would have earned $100k).