Day Player Pay: Minimum Rates, Overtime, and Residuals

A SAG-AFTRA day player earns a minimum of $1,246 for an eight-hour session on theatrical and television productions from July 1, 2025 through June 30, 2026.¹ That figure is the floor for day player pay, and the actual amount landing in a performer’s account depends on overtime, meal penalties, reclassification to higher tiers, pension and health contributions, residuals, dues, and how the agent’s commission is structured on top of scale.

Who Counts as a Day Player

Under Schedule A of the SAG-AFTRA Codified Basic Agreement, a day performer is anyone hired by the day who is not a background actor, stunt performer, stunt coordinator, professional singer, or dancer covered by a separate schedule.² The dividing line is scripted dialogue. Background actors provide atmosphere; day players deliver specific lines and actions. All scripted speaking parts must go to directly hired performers, not to background actors who get adjusted on set.

The engagement is defined by the material rather than a long commitment, so the pay rules focus on daily performance protections rather than exclusivity or guaranteed episodes.

Minimum Rates for 2025–2026

The 2023 successor agreement, negotiated after that year’s strike, set compounding increases of 7% effective November 9, 2023, 4% effective July 1, 2024, and 3.5% effective July 1, 2025.³ For the year running July 1, 2025 through June 30, 2026, the Network Television Code minimums for non-legacy productions are:

Day rate: $1,246 for an eight-hour session
Three-day rate (television): $3,157
Weekly rate: $4,326

Legacy productions, meaning series that began before certain contract thresholds, carry slightly higher minimums, with day rates at $1,290 and weekly rates at $4,478.¹ Many performers negotiate above scale, and franchised agents are required to do so to earn a commission on the booking.

On top of the session fee, the producer contributes to the SAG-AFTRA pension and health plans as a percentage of gross compensation.⁴ Those contributions don’t show up on the paycheck, but they accrue toward health insurance eligibility and retirement benefits.

Overtime, Meal Penalties, and Forced Calls

The eight-hour session fee covers a standard workday. A day performer earns time-and-a-half for the ninth and tenth hours and double time for every hour after that.² These are contractual minimums that apply regardless of the project’s budget.

The first meal must be called no later than six hours after the performer’s call time, and every subsequent meal is due within six hours of the previous one ending. When the production runs past those windows, penalties accrue in half-hour increments: $25 for each of the first and second half-hour violations, then $50 for every half-hour after that.⁵ Across a cast of twenty performers, those penalties add up quickly.

Every performer is entitled to a 12-hour rest period between dismissal and the next day’s first call, whether that call is for makeup, wardrobe, or anything else. On location outside the studio zone, the rest period can drop to 10 hours when exterior photography requires it, but only once every four consecutive days. On overnight locations for theatrical productions, two non-consecutive reductions to 11 hours per workweek are allowed.⁶

Violating the rest period is called a forced call. The penalty is the performer’s daily rate or $900, whichever is less.⁶ For a performer working at scale, that’s a meaningful addition to the paycheck.

When Day Pay Converts to Weekly Pay

The producer can convert a day player to a weekly engagement at any time, before or after work begins.² The math usually forces it once an engagement stretches toward a full week. Five daily rates at $1,246 each total $6,230, while the weekly rate is $4,326.¹ No production pays roughly $1,900 more than it has to, so the weekly conversion is effectively automatic at five consecutive days.

Television productions have an intermediate tier. The Network Television Code three-day rate of $3,157 (non-legacy) kicks in when a day player works three or more days within a single workweek. Three daily rates would total $3,738, so the three-day rate saves the production about $580 while guaranteeing the performer a set amount regardless of whether one of those days wraps early. When reclassification happens, the production must update the performer’s contract to reflect the new rate structure.

Consecutive Employment and Hold Days

Day performers are employed on a consecutive basis, meaning the production generally must pay for every day between the first and last work days, even days you aren’t called to set.⁷ The seventh day of the workweek and holidays are excepted unless the production actually needs you on those days.²

There is one significant escape valve. If the production gives you a firm pickup date that falls more than 10 calendar days after your initial employment ends (14 days for productions shooting outside the United States), it doesn’t have to pay for the gap.⁷ Producers can also use an “on or after” pickup date, which adds a 24-hour window of flexibility. Only one such break per production is allowed, so a producer can’t repeatedly drop and re-hire you to avoid consecutive pay.

Per Diem and Travel Time on Location

When a production doesn’t provide meals directly, it owes the performer a per diem meal allowance, paid before the work day or week begins. The contractual minimums are $14 for breakfast, $21 for lunch, and $35 for dinner. Regardless of how early or late the call, the first major meal the production serves can only be deducted at the lunch rate.⁸

Travel time also affects compensable hours. On overnight locations away from the producer’s base, travel time back to lodging counts as work time and must be recorded. The 15-minute rule, which lets performers remove ordinary makeup and wardrobe without additional pay, cannot start until you’ve returned to basecamp or your reporting location. On overnight locations, it cannot start until you’re back at lodging.⁹ These details are where productions most often shave time and where performers most often lose money they’re owed.

Residuals and the Streaming Success Bonus

The session fee covers the original use. When the project is rebroadcast, distributed to new platforms, or exhibited on streaming services, the performer is entitled to residuals, calculated based on the type of reuse. Day players receive residuals on the same basis as other principal performers; the size of the role doesn’t reduce eligibility.

The 2023 contract introduced a streaming success bonus for high-budget subscription video-on-demand productions. A production qualifies when its total domestic viewing time during the first 90 days equals at least 20% of the service’s subscriber base. When triggered, the bonus equals 75% of the high-budget SVOD residuals already paid to the performer for that year’s exhibition. For services reporting both domestic and foreign numbers, the bonus is calculated on both.¹⁰ The subscriber count used for the threshold is measured as of July 1 each year and applied through the following June 30.

Late Payment Penalties

If a paycheck doesn’t arrive on time, the production owes late payment damages of $3.85 per business day, up to a maximum of 25 days or $96.30 total. Productions rarely add these damages voluntarily. If the check is late and the penalty isn’t included, contact SAG-AFTRA to file a claim; the union processes these claims and pursues the damages.¹¹

Dues, Commissions, and What You Actually Keep

SAG-AFTRA membership requires a national initiation fee of $3,121. Working dues are 1.575% of covered earnings up to $1,000,000.¹² For a day player at scale on a single booking, the working dues amount is modest, but it accumulates across jobs.

Agent commissions on scale earnings follow a structure designed to protect the performer’s floor. For theatrical, television, and streaming work, a franchised agent cannot commission the scale rate directly. The agent must negotiate above scale, typically scale plus 10%, and that additional amount is the commission.¹³ If your agent books you at scale plus 10%, your take-home before taxes and dues is the full scale amount, and the 10% on top goes to the agent. A day player at straight scale keeps every dollar of that $1,246 from the agent’s perspective. If an agent isn’t negotiating above scale, they shouldn’t be commissioning session work at all.

1
SAG-AFTRA. SAG-AFTRA Network TV Code 2025 Agreement Rates
2
SAG-AFTRA. SAG-AFTRA Codified Basic Agreement – Schedule A: Day Performers
3
SAG-AFTRA. TV/Theatrical Contracts 2023 Summary Agreement
4
SAG-AFTRA. SAG-AFTRA Codified Basic Agreement – Pension and Health Contributions
5
SAG-AFTRA. When Are Meals Due? What Are the Liquidated Damages if Not Fed on Time?
6
SAG-AFTRA. Rest Periods (Forced Calls)
7
SAG-AFTRA. Consecutive Employment
8
SAG-AFTRA. Transportation and Location Expenses
9
SAG-AFTRA. Contract Bulletin: 15-Minute Rule
10
SAG-AFTRA. High Budget SVOD Streaming Success Bonus FAQs
11
SAG-AFTRA. What Are the Penalties if My Check Is Paid Late?
12
SAG-AFTRA. Membership Costs, Initiation Fee and Dues
13
SAG-AFTRA. Agency Bulletin – L.A. Commission Limitations