Costume Designers Fight for Pay Equity by Sharing Wage Discrepancies
variety.comJazz Tangcay Artisans EditorCostume designers have ratcheted up their long-running battle for pay equity, using the awards season spotlight and a starry guild video released last month to amplify their message.Backstage following her Oscar victory March 27, “Cruella” costume designer Jenny Beavan pointed to the embroidered guild slogan “Naked Without Us” on her blouse, and assured media that pay equity is still very much an issue in her predominantly female field. “It’s not gone away,” said Bea- van, who became embroiled in a dispute with Disney for money from “Cruella” merchandising a year earlier.According to data about artisan pay scales provided by the Costume Designers Guild’s pay equity committee, costume de- signers earn almost $1,000 less per week than production designers, their closest creative peers.
And while it can be risky to speak out about earnings, costume designers are increasingly doing so to close the gap between their compensation and that commanded by other artisans.
During her Costume Designers Guild Award acceptance speech earlier in March, Shawna Trpcic, honored for her work on “The Book of Boba Fett,” urged her peers to reveal their pay to spotlight the issue. “They won’t know to fight for us if we don’t report our wages,” she said.Suttirat Larlarb, nominated by the guild for her contributions on “No Time to Die,” has seen the discrepancy firsthand.
On 2010’s “127 Hours,” she doubled as both costume designer and production designer, but her pay scale as a production designer was “18% more than my costume design rate.”Larlarb had already signed on to work alongside frequent collaborator Danny Boyle.
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