The $400 was a complaint from someone who doesn't work there anymore. The outrage was because Sohla said the poc staff were asked to film videos without any additional payment.
I’m quite aware. But people keep bringing up the $400 and using it as proof of how “unfair” the salaries are. I also saw the post the person made and the tone was pretty accusatory. Everyone is acting as if that person was having pennies thrown at them when...that’s a pretty fucking fair rate for the work they were doing.
As far as “not getting additional payment”. Again.......we know how many views Claire and Brad get on any of their videos but lets still include one for comparison.
This was a quick search to compare numbers. Now let’s look at some ad revenue numbers:
2 thousand dollars in profit for every million views...BEFORE YouTube takes their 45% cut. Those videos that don’t even break a million views are pretty much making BA no money when you put the ad revenue up against the production costs and overheads the company has. There’s a very real possibility that they’re costing BA money instead of bringing in profit. Those videos also take maybe 3-4 hours to shoot tops. That’s if literally everything goes wrong. Something like that could easily be incorporated into anyone’s work day when it’s part of your regular responsibilities. Especially when taking into consideration that they’re not shooting every day.
The BA channel is kept afloat by GM, It’s Alive, and maybe Carla’s show but that’s because of the celebrity guests not because Carla has some massive loyal following. Mollie gets solid views but also her videos are INSANELY EXPENSIVE. We all know this. I wouldn’t be shocked if they were barely breaking even or lost money on her show.
The view counts and revenue speak for themselves. Not even looking at race, gender, or anything else here but cold hard numbers and I don’t see the business justification to pay anyone that isn’t Claire or Brad bonuses per video appearances. Even they don’t get them because I’m pretty sure both of them are on very different contracts now and not the typical salary the editors get. Again, y’all thinking about this stuff emotionally when you have to look at it from a financial perspective because this is first and foremost a business.