Over the years, there has been an increasing amount of coverage revealing the sexism and racism that exists in Hollywood around hiring and the compensation of actors. Recent news shows this problem is still alive and well. The CBS show Hawaii Five-0 is losing two main actors, Daniel Dae Kim and Grace Park, after refusing to pay the actors as much as their white co-stars. Variety reports:
Sources tell Variety that Park and Kim had been seeking pay equality with stars Alex O’Loughlin and Scott Caan, but were unable to reach satisfactory deals with CBS Television Studios, which produces the series. CBS’s final offer to Kim and Park was believed to have been 10-15% lower than what O’Loughlin and Caan make in salary. O’Laughlin and Caan each have deals that also provide them percentage points on the show’s back end.
What makes this particularly more enraging is that someone from CBS defended the network’s negotiation while completely ignoring the original injustice of under-compensating its star actors of color. The Hollywood Reporter shares:
“Daniel and Grace have been important and valued members of Hawaii Five-0 for seven seasons," CBS said Wednesday in a statement. "We did not want to lose them and tried very hard to keep them with offers for large and significant salary increases. While we could not reach an agreement, we part ways with tremendous respect for their talents on screen, as well as their roles as ambassadors for the show off screen, and with hopes to work with them again in the near future."
Kim himself confirmed that salary was behind his departure from the show. In a public Facebook post, he rightly notes that “the path to equality is rarely easy.”