MOVIES

Why men make more than women in Hollywood

Maria Puente
USA TODAY
Jennifer Lawrence in London on May 9, 2016.

Is the campaign to close the Hollywood gender pay gap stalled? The gap is still wide — wider even than that for average working women — and older female stars have it even worse, according to new figures.

This is not news to anyone in Hollywood, particularly women. But it's getting way more Hollywood buzz now in part thanks to agitation by such boldfaced names as Oscar winners Cate Blanchett, Patricia Arquette and Jennifer Lawrence.

"The fact that people are paying attention to this is what's new — it's only in the last couple of years and only since the actresses started talking about it," says activist Melissa Silverstein, founder of the Women and Hollywood website which tracks this issue.

"What’s happening now is that women in Hollywood are emboldened to talk about gender discrimination — you can’t turn a blind eye to this issue anymore."

Stars speak out about sexism in Hollywood but nothing seems to change

People were talking about it Thursday because once again, annual Hollywood earning data compiled by Forbes magazine illustrates the pay disparity. The magazine's list of top-earning male stars shows that Lawrence, who topped the magazine's female stars list with $46 million, earned only about 71% of what the top male star, Dwayne Johnson, earned, at $64.5 million.

Lawrence would be only the 6th-highest-paid star if the male and female lists were combined.

Dwayne Johnson rocks 'Forbes' highest-paid actor list

For comparison purposes, the U.S. Census Bureau's most recent calculations of median average pay for women and men, in September 2015, found that women make about 79 cents for every dollar paid to men, a statistic that hasn't changed much in a half-dozen years.

That means ordinary working women are slightly better off in these sorts of calculations than the likes of Lawrence, star of one of the most lucrative box-office movie franchises, The Hunger Games.

Dwayne Johnson on June 10, 2016 in Los Angeles.

Forbes calculates the stars' earnings between June 1, 2015 and June 1, 2016, before taxes and before the deduction of management fees, using data from Nielsen, Box Office Mojo and IMDb, and from interviews with agents, managers and lawyers. These calculations are not based on the box office revenues of the stars' movies.

The latest list, which repeats patterns from previous years, illustrates other discrepancies, such as the one for age: All of the top 10 male earners are over 40 compared to only half the top 10 women earners, which includes Melissa McCarthy, Jennifer Aniston, Charlize Theron, Julia Roberts and Amy Adams.

Jennifer Lawrence repeats as 'Forbes' highest-paid actress

So why is the pay gap in Hollywood still a reality? Because it's still a reality in the larger culture, says Martha Lauzen, head of the Center for the Study of Women in Television and Film at San Diego State University.

"If that larger culture under-values women's contributions, it is no surprise that the film studios do the same," Lauzen says. "Contrary to popular belief, in many ways the mainstream film industry remains a staunch supporter and reinforcer of the status quo, particularly when we are talking about gender, race, and similar issues."

Among the truisms Hollywood embraces is the idea that male stars are better box-office draws than women stars, she says.

"It remains part of the conventional wisdom in the mainstream film industry, in spite of a growing body of research" that shows instead it's "the size of the budget, not the sex of the protagonists or filmmaker, that determines box office grosses," Lauzen says.

Cathy Schulman, Oscar-winning veteran producer and president of Women In Film, Los Angeles (most recently head of production at STX, where her film Bad Moms is a summer hit “must see” for women audiences), says there is a "round-robin" of problems behind pay inequity, including male-favoring global audiences, unconscious bias, and the length of time it takes women to get their next paying industry job compared to men.

But one bottom line, she says, is that "women actors aren’t given pay raises at the same rate as men are — it’s just a fact." She says the in-flux payment system for Hollywood talent is based on "previous quotes," or whatever the talent was paid in a previous job coupled with success of the movie.

"What we’re seeing is that when people are getting raises, it's directly related to whether it follows a hit movie," Schulman says. "But the jumps in 'quote' are way bigger for men than they are for women at the moment, and it has to do with who is doing the negotiating and who is buying the talent. We've not seen the agencies, studios and financers fight for that kind of quote-doubling with women as much as men."

Silverstein argues that looking back at previous Forbes lists suggests that the Hollywood pay gap, while still too wide, has shrunk slightly in recent years. But it's still not right, she says.

"Women have to be paid more in films, but the problem is that the way to do it is to be in bigger-budget movies, and those kinds of movies are pretty much closed out to women because that is how (Hollywood) is structured," she says.

Kirsten Schaffer, executive director of Women In Film, Los Angeles, which promotes equal opportunity for women in the industry, says there aren't enough roles for women in the kinds of movies that have mega-box office.

"The solution is studios putting out more films with women at the center, marketing them well and audiences buying tickets," Schaffer says. "We know there is an audience for films starring women, it’s been proven with ticket sales. Change takes time, but we are definitely seeing greater awareness of the gender pay gap, which is the first step. We expect to see greater changes in the coming years."

Silverstein notes that figuring out compensation is a complicated matter in Hollywood. She says that compared to male stars, women stars' total compensation in a given year more often includes income from something other than movie salaries.

"Women in Hollywood are valued not only for their movies roles but for their endorsements," Silverstein says, pointing to Aniston, who was not in big-budget movies last year but continues to make the list because she has significant endorsement deals.

"That is the reality of women in Hollywood," Silverstein says. "Representing brands is basically a normal route for an actress because she and her team know that the possibility of earning significant money for just film work is not available for a woman."

Tomorrow is Women's Equality Day, to commemorate the 1920 ratification of 19th Amendment giving women the right to vote.

"It’s great that people are continuing to talk about the pay gap in Hollywood, but the industry continues to undervalue the contributions of women," Silverstein says. "Jennifer Lawrence is one of the biggest stars in the world, and the fact she is paid less on an annual basis for all her accomplishments illustrates the work that needs to be done."