Hi folks, throwaway account here.

There has been much discussion amongst voice actors lately in favor of pushing all anime work Union and raising rates, after Funimation and Cruncyroll officially merged, bought by Sony.

“Voice actors?” you ask. “Don't voice actors get paid really well?”

You'd be right to think that! Commercials, promo, video games, and animated shows do tend to pay well. But not non-union anime.

If you're a voice actor working for Funimation, you will begin by being paid $35/hr for walla and bit parts. And keep in mind this is not a 9-5 – the majority actors tend to be lucky to have one session a week. After you have worked so many hours with them, you get a bump, but the most you can be paid is $75. That is their cap. They are asking workers to do labor for the price of gas it takes to get to the studio, and no matter what, you don't get residuals. You could voice in an incredibly popular show seen by millions and it will never be reflected in your check.

They are allowed to get by with these predatory rates because so many people aspire to be in anime, they will accept lowball offers merely for the opportunity. Texas, where Funi and many voice actors are based, is also a right to work state. If the market for producing anime is significantly cheaper in Texas, this will cause incentive for shows to avoid going union to save money.

The current union rate is $125/hr, 2 hour session minimum. If you are a union member, you need to make $25,950 per year min. from union jobs to qualify for SAG-A health insurance. Yes, I think the Union is flawed for this, and the only way to change that is by having influence within it and making dues more progressive so the 1% of actors that make more money than god can pay for it. We can do this if we have more voting influence.

If we get anime to go union and raise rates, we would be helping actors have access to healthcare, ensured safety guidelines for recording during a pandemic, and helping these people eat. In order to have flexibility to record most of us are service workers by day just trying to get by.

Sony has the money to pay their workers a fair wage.

So how can I help?

If you're a Crunchyroll or Funimation subscriber, write to their customer service and tell them that as a paying user, you want to see them increase production budgets and GO UNION so that actors, engineers, directors, and writers are all paid what they should be.