New MBA provision significantly boosts pay for development room work.
Robert Funke’s return to TV employment post-strike in a pre-greenlight development room was an overwhelmingly positive experience. Funke, a WGAW member and creator of On Becoming a God in Central Florida, shared the room of Appalachia with a small group of writers whose work he knew. “I love and grew to admire them even more after working with them,” Funke said, “and that’s pretty irreplaceable.”
But the best part of the Appalachia room—which ran from January to March of 2024—was the premium weekly compensation Funke earned for his 10 weeks of development room work. After the strike, the opportunity to bring in a healthy paycheck was, in Funke’s words, “a godsend.”
“I had overdrawn my bank account the week before the room opened, and it was in the nick of time. It was enough money to put me back in the black for a minute,” Funke said. “Doing the math in hindsight and looking back on how it would have been were it not for the new premiums, I can look at the things that this makes possible for me and my family. There were a lot of stressors financially that this job relieved.”
The development rooms provisions of the 2023 MBA were a significant milestone in the Guild’s efforts to change the economics of mini-room work. Per the terms of the agreement, a development room guarantees 10 consecutive weeks of work on television and high-budget subscription video on demand (HBSVOD) series. The weekly rate for these services, which applies to guarantees of up to 19 weeks, comes at a 25% premium over the highest week-to-week rate for each title category; when combined with the overall 5% minimums increase in Year 1 and the writer-producer tier, this represents up to a 73% increase over the applicable 2020 MBA minimums.
| Title | 2023 MBA Year 1 Minimum for Development Room work 10 to 19 Weeks |
2020 MBA Year 3 Minimum for Development Room work 10 to 19 weeks |
% Increase |
|---|---|---|---|
| Staff Writer | $6,959 | $4,926 - $5,302 | 31% - 41% |
| Story Editor/Executive Story Editor | $12,978 | $8,240 | 58% |
| Writer-Producer | $14,214 | $8,240 | 73% |
Employers can pay writers the non-premium rates for work in a development room (with a minimum of 3 writer-producers) if they guarantee all the writers 20 or more weeks. Prior to the strike, with no minimum duration for mini-rooms, some writers had found themselves working in mini-rooms for just five or six weeks, with an applicable minimum that did not reflect the premium value of bringing a series into being.
“Addressing the abuses of mini-rooms was of huge importance to the Negotiating Committee,” said WGAW Board member Angelina Burnett who served on the 2023 Negotiating Committee.
Looking back on how it would have been were it not for the new premiums, I can look at the things that this makes possible for me and my family.
- Robert Funke
Burnett is currently working in a development room for an FX series. The extra $4,000 per week premium that she is earning over the course of 12 weeks has made a major difference for Burnett.
“I can just say that extra $4,000 a week made this job viable for me,” said Burnett. “I didn’t work for a long time, and it was really scary and down to the bone. This job got me back to zero. It got me out of debt and back to a stable place. It wouldn’t have done that if it had not been for the premium pay we won in the strike.”
When they entered the development room of The Office spin-off, Michael Levin and his writing partner Patrick Kang were confident that the series would ultimately get its green light.
“To have the showrunners, Pat and I, and three other writers in that mini-room for those 10 weeks was great. That was certainly the most we had been paid on a weekly level,” Levin said. “Then, in between, there was a month off after the mini-room and before the regular room started.”
“I was a captain during the strike. My wife is also a writer and we were both out there picketing,” he added. “It felt strangely great for there to be such a tangible thing that changed because of those five months of picketing.”
