Introducing a report on Tuesday's CBS This Morning that examined the negative impact of forcing a wage hike on small businesses, co-host Norah O'Donnell declared: "A theater drama is playing out this morning in Los Angeles. The country's largest stage actors union votes on a plan forcing tiny theaters to pay everyone the minimum wage....many performers say getting a raise will do them more harm than good."
Correspondent John Blackstone explained that "Actors' Equity, the union that represents some 6,500 stage performers in L.A." was "pushing for its members to be paid California's minimum wage, $9 an hour." He then noted the controversy: "But many actors say they don't want the money. They fear getting paid will mean curtains for many of L.A.'s small theaters."
After playing soundbites of local actors opposed and in favor of the mandatory raise, Blackstone highlighted a prominent opponent: "Actor/producer Noah Wyle, who's staging a play Sons of the Prophet, says big profits are impossible in a theater with fewer than a hundred seats." Wyle worried: "You're cutting into what is no profit margin anyway. You couldn't open your doors."
When President Obama called for a nationwide minimum wage increase in early 2014, CBS was the only network to provide full reports on the potential for the policy to cost hundreds of thousands of jobs.
However, as a Business and Media Institute study found, CBS also sought to undermine such arguments:
On Sunday Morning, Charles Osgood brought up a conservative position, though he immediately undermined it with a CBS poll saying, "Though business groups argue that increasing the wage would discourage hiring, 69 percent of Americans support boosting it to at least $9-an-hour."
Nancy Cordes mentioned a Republican Congressman's objections to a higher minimum wage, saying, "Minnesota Congressman Eric Paulson argues hiking the minimum wage will cause businesses to hire fewer workers to save costs," on Evening News, Jan. 29.
But after playing a clip of Rep. Paulson's remarks, Cordes immediately disagreed: "It was the way to go for his constituents, John Soranno and John Puckett, who owned a pizza chain President Obama highlighted last night." She then praised a Minnesota pizza parlor which pays workers a "$10-an-hour starting wage," according to owner John Soranno.
Here is a full transcript of the April 21 report from Blackstone:
8:06 AM ET
NORAH O'DONNELL: A theater drama is playing out this morning in Los Angeles. The country's largest stage actors union votes on a plan forcing tiny theaters to pay everyone the minimum wage. As John Blackstone shows us, many performers say getting a raise will do them more harm than good.
[ON-SCREEN HEADLINE: Staging a Fight; Performers Battle Union to Prevent Higher Wages]
JOHN BLACKSTONE: For the actors rehearsing here at the Theatre of Note in Los Angeles, this is a labor of love. They get paid nothing for rehearsals at this fifty-seat theater and as little as $7 for each performance.
JUSTIN OKIN: We do it for the chance to work on shows like this.
BLACKSTONE: Justin Okin is a member of Actors' Equity, the union that represents some 6,500 stage performers in L.A. The union is pushing for its members to be paid California's minimum wage, $9 an hour. But many actors say they don't want the money. They fear getting paid will mean curtains for many of L.A.'s small theaters.
OKIN: It's not a choice of $9 an hour or acting for free. It's a choice of acting or not acting in a space like this.
BLACKSTONE: The union's governing body will vote today on a plan to end a decades-old waiver that allows L.A. theaters with fewer than ninety-nine seats to pay actors only a small stipend. Perry Ojeda is a member who supports paying performers the minimum wage.
PERRY OJEDA: It's unethical to create a business model based on free labor. There are instances in the ninety-nine-seat theater plan where everyone else is paid except for the actors.
BLACKSTONE: But actor/producer Noah Wyle, who's staging a play Sons of the Prophet, says big profits are impossible in a theater with fewer than a hundred seats.
NOAH WYLE: You're cutting into what is no profit margin anyway. You couldn't open your doors.
BLACKSTONE: Working in ninety-nine-seat theaters did open doors for Criminal Minds actress Kirsten Vangsness. [To Vangsness] You can work for very little in a theater like this.
VANGSNESS: Yeah, yeah.
BLACKSTONE: Other actors who work in a place like this may not be in a-
VANGSNESS: Absolutely, but I did this well before I had that job and I made very little doing this. And it's the very thing that got me the job that I have now. And it's the very thing, I believe, that keeps me having that job.
BLACKSTONE: So to borrow the oft-quoted words of Shakespeare, to be, or not to be – paid, that is the question that will be answered later today. For CBS This Morning, John Blackstone, Los Angeles.
GAYLE KING: So important.
O'DONNELL: Yeah, it's an interesting argument, both sides of it.
KING: I think so, too. To be or not to be, that's always the question.
CHARLIE ROSE: Or all the world's a stage.
KING: That's right. There we are.
