Background Performers: SAG-AFTRA Rates, Bumps, and Residuals

Under the SAG-AFTRA Codified Basic Agreement in effect from July 1, 2025 through June 30, 2026, SAG-AFTRA background actor pay starts at a daily minimum of $224 for a standard eight-hour call, which works out to $28 per hour.¹ That is the floor. What lands in your bank account depends on a stack of bumps, overtime rules, and category upgrades layered on top of it.

Daily Rates by Category

The $224 general background rate covers the routine work of filling out a restaurant, walking a sidewalk, or sitting in a courtroom gallery. Members cannot accept less than the contract-covered wage.²

Special ability performers, hired because they can swim, skate, ride horses, or perform a similar on-camera skill, earn $234 per day. Stand-ins and photo doubles sit in their own tier at $262. A stand-in substitutes for a principal during lighting and camera setup but is never photographed; a photo double matches a lead’s appearance for specific shots.³

Lower-budget productions covered by tiered budget agreements pay a reduced scale. Under Tiered Budget I, for example, general background is $194.55 per day.

Non-union sets are outside the SAG-AFTRA contract entirely. There is no union floor, only the applicable minimum wage, and eight hours of work typically pays around $100 to $175 depending on the location and budget.

Bumps That Stack on Top of the Base Rate

Bumps combine. If a shoot triggers three of them in one day, you collect all three on top of your daily rate.

Wardrobe

When a production asks you to bring your own clothes, the first outfit is free. The second earns a $9 bump, and each additional outfit adds $6.25. Formal attire, furs, period costumes, and military-style uniforms bump to $27. A police uniform pays $36.² You get paid for every change the production requests, even if the wardrobe department decides not to use it on camera.

Props and Vehicles

Personal items the production needs in a scene carry their own allowances. A car or motorcycle pays $37.50 per day. Pets pay $23. A bicycle or set of golf clubs pays $12. Smaller items like skateboards, luggage, or cameras pay $5.50 each.² If a production wants your car at a costume fitting, you receive half the normal allowance for that trip.

Wet and Smoke Conditions

Working in artificial rain, fog, or smoke adds $14 per day, raising the general background rate to $238. If a scene involves both wet and smoke conditions, the combined bump is $28, pushing the day to $252.¹

Hazard Pay

Hazard pay works differently. Under the TV and theatrical agreement, there is no fixed dollar amount; the background actor and producer negotiate additional compensation before the hazardous work begins, and the performer can refuse the work.² Under the Network Code, hazard pay is a flat $100 per program. In commercials it is negotiable, and if you were not told about hazardous work in advance and decline it, you keep full pay for the day.

Overtime and Meal Penalties

The first eight hours are straight time. Hours nine and ten pay time-and-a-half. Hours eleven through fifteen pay double time. Past sixteen hours, the production owes a full day’s pay for every additional hour or fraction of an hour.¹ That sixteen-hour penalty is steep enough that most productions will wrap rather than keep paying it.

The first meal break has to be called no later than six hours from your call time, and every subsequent meal is due within six hours of the last one.⁴ Meal period violation payments start at $7.50 for the first half-hour late, $10 for the second, and $12.50 for every half-hour after that.¹ Those amounts accrue per person across the entire background cast, which is why assistant directors take meal timing seriously.

Beyond pay, the production owes a climate-controlled holding area with a seat for every background performer, clean drinking water, and sanitary restrooms with toilet paper and soap.²

Studio Zones and Cancellation Pay

Union contracts define geographic studio zones that decide whether a production owes you mileage. The Los Angeles zone is a 30-mile radius from the intersection of Beverly Boulevard and La Cienega Boulevard. The New York zone is an 8-mile radius from Columbus Circle, with a broader 300-mile air radius defining overall jurisdiction for New York-based productions.⁵ When the production sends you to a location within the zone but away from the studio, mileage is reimbursed for the round trip.

If a production books you and then cancels, you are entitled to a full day’s pay. The exception is a cancellation caused by a principal’s illness, fire, flood, or similar emergency, in which case the production owes a half-check, but only if it failed to notify you before 6 p.m. the previous workday.² Notice before that cutoff means the production owes nothing.

Nudity and Simulated Sex Scenes

You must receive at least 48 hours’ notice before being asked to appear nude or perform in a simulated sex scene.² You will be given a consent form on arrival, and if you decline, you can leave and still collect your full day’s pay.⁶ The production also has to provide cover-ups during breaks and keep the set closed to non-essential personnel.

Do Background Actors Get Residuals?

Usually not. Under the standard TV and theatrical agreements, residuals go to principal performers, meaning those with speaking roles or featured action. The daily voucher rate is generally the full and final compensation for background work.

The main exception is an on-set upgrade. If a director gives you a line of dialogue or otherwise bumps you to principal status during the shoot, your contract status changes. You collect both your full day’s pay as a background actor and your full day’s pay as a principal, with a partial deduction for the overlapping portion of the day, and you are covered by principal residual terms when the project airs in secondary markets like streaming, cable, or syndication.²

Commercials work differently. Under the 2025 commercials agreement, the old 13-week session rate for extras was eliminated, and extras are now compensated under an unlimited-use rate, which generally means a single upfront payment rather than ongoing residual checks.⁷

AI Scans and Digital Replica Pay

The 2023 contract added the first union-negotiated rules on digital replicas of background performers. A producer has to give you at least 48 hours’ notice before scanning you to create a digital replica. If you are hired less than 48 hours before the scan, notice must come at the time of booking. Consent has to be clear and conspicuous, written in bold or all-caps in a rider or contract, and has to spell out how the replica will be used and in what medium.⁸

To use your replica in a different project or medium from what you agreed to, the production needs your consent again and has to pay at least the background daily minimum for each new use. Voucher language that tries to grant blanket permission for a “simulated likeness and voice” is void where it conflicts with the collective bargaining agreement.⁸ Scanning time counts as work time. If a scan happens on a day you are not otherwise performing, you must be paid for a full day.⁹

For a fully synthetic performer generated using a real performer’s name or principal facial features as a prompt, the producer has to bargain individually with that performer for consent and compensation.

How Your Pay Affects Health Coverage and Taxes

SAG-AFTRA’s health plan uses earnings-based eligibility. For 2026, you need at least $28,090 in covered earnings during your base earnings period to qualify for the Active Plan, or you can qualify through 108 eligibility days, calculated by dividing your total covered session earnings by the applicable daily minimum rate.¹⁰ At $224 per day, 108 days works out to roughly two union background days per week for a full year. Most background-only performers do not clear that bar.

On union productions, you are classified as a W-2 employee, and the production withholds income tax, Social Security, and Medicare. Non-union work is inconsistent: some productions issue a W-2, and others classify extras as independent contractors and issue a 1099, leaving you to pay self-employment tax. Worker classification turns on how much control the employer has over when, where, and how you work, not on the job title. Keep every pay stub and voucher, because background income from a dozen productions still adds up on a single tax return.

1
SAG-AFTRA. Background Actors Rate Breakdown Sheet
2
SAG-AFTRA. Background Actors Contracts Digest
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SAG-AFTRA. Background Actors LA Zones Digest
4
SAG-AFTRA. When Are Meals Due
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SAG-AFTRA. Background Actors Contracts Digest
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SAG-AFTRA. Stronger Protections for Performers in Scenes Involving Nudity and Simulated Sex
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SAG-AFTRA. 2025 Commercials Contracts
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SAG-AFTRA. A.I. Background Questions
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SAG-AFTRA. Digital Replicas 101
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SAG-AFTRA Plans. Earned Eligibility