“My savings is dwindling,” one crew member said. “I’m not going to be able to pay my bills, and then in the next six months I won’t have worked enough union hours to cover my health insurance.”
Though the crew respects Ray’s hesitance to return to the studio, some told Buzzfeed that it’s hard to know that she just donated $4 million to coronavirus relief while they forgo the wages that were promised to them.
“We were told back in August, ‘We’re a family and we’re going to take care of you.’ It was nice, and then for this to happen, people are hurt,” one crew member said. “It’s a damn shame.”
Rachael Ray isn’t the only show shorting its crew. Similar complaints have also been made by those working on The Real, American Idol, Entertainment Tonight, and Dr. Phil.
“They’re a giant corporation and this is a multibillion-dollar entertainment business,” another crew member said. “CBS is getting their shows, they’re getting their advertising dollars, the production companies are making money, but they’re not paying us.”
While the pandemic has been economically disastrous for just about everyone (except, of course, the rich), women have been hit the hardest. A release earlier this month from the U.S. Department of Labor’s Bureau of Labor Statistics revealed that the unemployment rate among women over the age of 20 in September 2020 was 7.7 percent, compared to men’s 7.4 percent. The unemployment rate for adult Latinas and Black women is above 10 percent.
