If you have navigated your way to this page, congratulations on your paid booking! We are here to help you understand the various lines on your pay stub.

To find out what the current rate of pay is for the category you were booked in, you can refer to the following sections of the Independent Production Agreement (IPA):

B101 for contracted On Camera roles

B103 for contracted Off Camera roles

C101 for vouchered roles (Stand In, Photo Double, Special Skill, Background Performer)

D103 and D105 for Animated Productions

There are other rates listed in the IPA as well, so if you have questions about what your rate will be, please don’t hesitate to contact an ACTRA Business Rep.

Deductions and Contributions

You will see that there are a number of deductions as well as contributions indicated on your paystubs.

If you are a Full Member of ACTRA:

 You will see a 12% Producer contribution for your Insurance and Retirement. This breaks down as 5% towards your Insurance, and 7% towards your retirement.

As a Full Member, you will also see a deduction of 3% that goes towards your Retirement Plan.

Please note that there is a cap on contributions that can be found in Article A3804 if your Gross Fees exceed $100,000.00.

Finally, as a Full Member of ACTRA, there are 2.25% in working dues deducted from your Gross Fees, per Article A3704.

If you are an Apprentice or Non-Member of ACTRA 

As an Apprentice or Non-Member of ACTRA, you will see that there is an equalization contribution of 12% made by Producers. This is in order to equalize the payments in respect to ACTRA Members and non-members.

There is also a 3% deduction made from your Gross Fees to a maximum of $3,000 per Production.

If you worked as a Cash Background (White Voucher)

If you have completed a white voucher on set, you are paid at the rates listed in C503 per hour of work, and no deductions are made from your cheque, nor contributions made by the Producer.

Please do save your vouchers though, as you can use them to become an ACTRA Additional Background Performer (AABP).

Penalties

The most important thing to note with penalties, is that the maximum compounding of penalties cannot exceed 300% of a Performer’s contracted hourly rate.

1. How do I know if I am in a Meal Penalty?

There are two types of meal penalties. Meal Penalty one, which you will see on your paystubs as “MP1” and Meal Penalty two, listed on your paystubs as “MP2”

You are in MP1 if you have not been broken for lunch within the first 6 hours of your day; or if you were provided a non-deductible first meal, 6 hours from the time of crew call.

MP1 is paid at the applicable minimum hourly overtime rate (in addition to the applicable payment for the period being worked), calculated in 6-minute increments until the meal break is provided.

MP2 is a little more challenging to calculate. You should be provided with a ½ hour meal period after each 4 hours of overtime, or no later than 6 hours after the resumption of work. Most commonly, you will find yourself in MP2 while you are already in a double overtime situation. What this means is that as you are already being paid at 200% for OT2, your MP2 would be paid at 100% of your contracted hourly rate, calculated in 6-minute increments, until a meal break is provided.

2. How is Overtime Calculated?

There are two overtimes. Overtime 1, also listed as OT1 on your paystubs, is paid at 150% of your contracted hourly rate, calculated in 6-minute increments. This starts after you have worked in excess of 8 hours.

Overtime 2, also listed as OT2 on your paystubs, is paid at 200% of your contracted hourly rate, calculated in 6-minute increments. This starts after you have worked in excess of 12 hours.

3. What about 6^th and 7^th Days?

If you are required to work a 6^th consecutive day of work, you are paid at 150% of your contracted daily/hourly/overtime fee.

If you are required to work a 7^th consecutive day of work, you are paid at 200% of your contracted daily/hourly/overtime fee.

**You should be paid at 200% of your contracted fees for your 8^th and subsequent days of work until a day off has been given.

4. What is Turnaround?

Turnaround, also known as Rest Between Days, is dependent on your age as well as category of work.

• • For Minors who are 12 to 15 years old, turnaround is 12 hours from set to set.
  • For Minors under the age of 12, turnaround is 12 hours from door to door.
  • For Stunt Coordinators, turnaround is 10 hours from set to set.
  • For all other Performers, turnaround is 11 hours from set to set.

Turnaround is in breach if a Performer is required to report to work before the completion of the turnaround period as listed above.

Here is the tricky part. If you are in breach, turnaround is to be compensated at 200% of your contracted hourly rate, however, as you are already being paid from the start of your workday at 100%, the turnaround penalty compensates you for an additional 100% to bring the total to 200%. You do not get paid an additional 200% on top of the daily fee you are already being paid for that time.

5. What is a paythrough meal period?

If a Productions chooses to provide a first meal period of 30 minutes to the Performers, this meal period is then paid and considered to be part of the work day.

6. Does Hair/Makeup/Wardrobe make me go into overtime earlier?

No. when you report for H/M/W immediately prior to your call time, up to 15 minutes at your straight-time contracted hourly rate calculated in 6-minute increments, is payable and does not create an overtime situation. If H/M/W is longer than 15 minutes though, it becomes a part of your 8-hour workday.

7. Does Travel get paid at straight time or at the overtime rate?

Travel time is paid at the contracted straight-time hourly rate in 6-minute increments, up to a maximum of 8 hours in a day. It is important to note that if your travel time and workday do not exceed 8 hours, that can be included in your contracted daily fee.