‘Substantial Barriers’ to Minority Writers, Survey Finds

Minority writers have made few inroads in the movie and television industries in the last five years, according to a survey of employment trends commissioned by the Writers Guild of America, West, that was released Monday. “Substantial barriers to equal opportunity persist,” the report concluded.

Covering the period from 1987 through 1991, the survey found modest gains in the employment of minority writers in television and feature films in general and substantial improvement at a few companies. The pay gap for minority writers has narrowed from 54 cents for every dollar earned by whites to 79 cents.

Nevertheless, in 1991, white males accounted for more than 70% of employed television writers and over 80% of the writers for feature films. These percentages are virtually identical to the results from the last guild survey in 1987.

“You don’t get a sense of an industry re-examining itself, but that’s what is needed,” guild president Del Reisman said in an interview. The minuscule number of minority screen and television writers, who comprise only 4% of the guild’s 7,648 members, has led to a “numbness and sameness in the storytelling” that comes out of Hollywood, added Reisman. He called on the industry to provide aggressive mentoring programs for nonwhite writers.

The fact that many of the hiring decisions, especially in television, are made by so-called hyphenates--producers and directors who are also writers--is “a continuing embarrassment to the Writers Guild,” Reisman said. In television, 3.9% of the writers are minorities (up from 2.9% in 1987), while in film, minority writers increased from 2% to 2.6%.

According to the survey, women writers made slight gains in the television industry (from 22% to 25%) during the five-year period, but there was little change in the proportion of women writing for the movies (16% to 17%). In television, the pay gap between men and women narrowed slightly, but in films the disparity decreased dramatically (from 66 cents for every dollar earned by white males to 86 cents).

For older writers, the picture is mixed. In feature films, the proportion of writers over 50 remained constant at 15%, but in television representation of that age group declined from 22% to 18%. More writers in their 40s found work in both movies and television.

Officials of the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers, which strongly criticized the guild’s 1987 report as inaccurate and invalid, were unable to comment on this year’s report by edition deadline Monday.

The survey was prepared by UC Santa Barbara sociologists William T. and Denise D. Bielby based on earnings declarations submitted to the guild by its members. The period covered ended just as the industry began feeling the effects of the recession. Reisman said the downturn was likely to have a worsening effect on minority hiring.

Other findings include:

* Hiring of minority writers increased at six major film studios: Disney (from one to seven), Warner Bros. (three to 11), Universal (zero to six), Fox (zero to three), Columbia (eight to 10) and TriStar (two to four). But Paramount hired only one minority writer during the five-year period, while MGM had none. MGM was unable to comment by deadline, but a spokeswoman at Paramount said the survey was based on “incorrect” information. “We have and will continue to use a significant number of minority writers,” she said, but was unable to provide numbers.

* From 1987 to 1991, employment of minority writers in television increased from 76 to 103, mainly because of gains at Warner Bros. Television, Fox Television and NBC. But their opportunities “remain limited largely to situation comedies, especially those featuring African-American actors.”

* The earnings gap between minority and non-minority television writers has narrowed. So few minority writers work on movies that no clear pattern can be discerned from earnings statistics.

* At Disney-TV, the number of women writers jumped from 19% to 29%, but white males earned a median of $55,449 compared to $30,000 for women. Dean Valentine, executive vice president Disney Television, said pay levels are based on experience. “The fact that so many more women are coming in is an indication we’re trying very hard,” he said. “But you can’t pay a new writer what you pay a writer who’s been working seven years.”