What you get paid

Every casting call states the agreement it is booked under, and that agreement sets your rate. Union rates are negotiated nationally, so they are the same whichever agency books you. What is below is how your pay is worked out, and what we take.

The day rate

Each job names its agreement, and the agreement sets the rate. These are national rates negotiated between the unions and the producers – they are the same whichever agency books you, and no agency can pay less.

Every figure on this page includes holiday pay, which is a legal entitlement of 12.07% on top of the basic rate rather than a bonus. You may see the two quoted separately – BECTU publishes the FAA basic as £111.21 with £13.42 holiday pay on top – but the total you are paid is the same either way.

The standard day includes a meal break. Featured and walk-on roles are paid above these rates, and the figure for your job is confirmed when we book you.

Commercials, corporate and photographic work sit outside the union agreements, so the rate is agreed for each job. Overtime on that work is one fifth of the day rate for every hour, which is the industry convention.

Overtime

Overtime starts once you pass the standard day for your agreement. It is a fixed amount for each half hour, or part of one – so ten minutes over counts as a full half hour in your favour. It is not a multiple of your day rate.

On FAA/PACT (London & South East), for instance, the standard day is 9 hours and every half hour beyond it pays £11.69.

Nights and early calls

A night shoot is not your day rate with something added – it is a different basic rate, £186.96 on FAA and £185.40 on Equity, with overtime at the higher night rate.

On a day shoot, your day rate buys 07:00 to 22:00. Work at either end of that window is paid at the night rate:

• Before 07:00 is an early call, paid on top of your day rate – £17.54 per half hour on FAA, £9.53 on Equity. On FAA a six o'clock call is worth £35.08 before the day has started, and a call at or before 06:00 carries a further £20.91 travel supplement.
• After 22:00 is still overtime, but at the night rate rather than the day one – £17.54 a half hour instead of £11.69.

On top of your rate

These are paid with your fee where they apply, and each one is recorded on your job sheet:

• Travel. On FAA, £17.09 within TfL zones 1–3 and £23.89 for the studio belt out to 40 miles, plus £20.91 for a call at or before 06:00. On Equity it runs by distance, from £4.00 under four miles to £20.00 beyond forty.
• Meal allowances where the production does not feed you, and a penalty payment if your meal break is late or cut short.
• Supplementary payments for what the day asks of you – a costume change, a haircut, driving, riding, swimming, working in the wet, providing your own vehicle, or being asked for a line.
• Fittings are their own rate: £62.32 on FAA, £63.34 on Equity.

If a booking is cancelled

If the production cancels you, you are owed a cancellation fee, which we collect for you:

• Before midday the day before the shoot – no fee
• After midday the day before – 50% of your day rate
• After 15:00 the day before, or on the day – 100% of your day rate

If you cancel, we do not charge you. Tell us as early as you can. Repeated late cancellations or not turning up can mean suspension or removal from our books.

What we take

Our commission is 20% plus VAT, deducted from what we collect for you. VAT is charged on the commission only, never on your fees, and it is itemised every time. Commission applies to allowances and supplements as well as the fee itself.

There is nothing to pay to join: no registration fee, no annual fee, no charge for your profile or your photographs. Commission on work we find you is our only charge.

Checking your pay

On set the assistant director signs you in and out. That builds your chit: hours, overtime, night hours and any extras. When it is signed off we send it to you.

You have 48 hours to accept it or raise a query. If we hear nothing it is accepted automatically, though a mistake you can demonstrate still gets corrected. If you query it, we look into it, adjust it where you are right, and tell you the outcome.

When you are paid

The production pays us, then we pay you by BACS transfer to the account on your profile. We aim to pay within 10 working days of receiving cleared funds from the production, and your dashboard shows where each job has got to.

The full detail is in the Artiste Terms and Conditions.

Rates on this page are the published union figures, checked on 6 September 2026 against the BECTU rate cards. They are renegotiated each year, and this page is generated from the same figures the job sheet is calculated with, so the two cannot drift apart.