Those are among the benchmarks for certification by Pay Equity Standards, a new program developed by Hiltner, who has worked in theater production for 15 years, and her colleagues at the Chicago-based advocacy organization On Our Team. Two small companies in this city — Collaboraction, dedicated to social justice, and 2nd Story, dedicated to “real stories from real people for real change” — are the first to meet all the requirements. On June 29, they received, among other things, the right to use (but only for the rest of 2022) a beautiful laurel wreath badge in their marketing materials. Six more theaters across the country are working towards certification in 2023. They are small companies. New York nonprofits with artistic directors earning $1 million or more a year—and with pay margins that can approach a factor of 50—seem unlikely to apply. However, as with LEED certification or fair trade stickers or organic food labels, the hope is that the mark will ultimately help theater consumers choose works that align with their values. While she waits for that to happen, theaters may benefit, Hiltner says, from a happier, harder-working staff—and from the positive response she sees from funders and donors to foundations that actually “fulfill their missions.” But it is also the case that funders and sponsors generally prefer to contribute to theaters that do a lot of theater. That’s one of the problems facing PlayCo, a New York company that is implementing a new compensation model this year. As Kate Loewald, PlayCo’s founding producer, and Robert Bradshaw, its chief executive, described to me, the plan is designed to address not only the usual inequities by raising everyone to at least the living wage but also to adjust the pay misalignment between staff (who may be full-time) and artists (who usually work for a month or two). He does this, in part, by placing each job on a clearly defined and equal pay scale: A director is paid the same rate as Loewald and Bradshaw, an associate director the same rate as a freelance costume designer. Because all categories are “transparent”, everyone knows what everyone is doing, which in almost all cases is more than before. (The exception is Loewald, who took a cut.) Based on an estimate of 250 hours of work, directors previously paid $3,500 will now be paid $7,100.
