The Big Bank Theory

Now in its tenth season, you should be familiar with the show The Big Bang Theory and it’s five original main characters Leonard, Penny, Raj, Sheldon, and Howard and the last two’s respective partners, Amy Farrah Fowler and Bernadette Rostenkowski.

But what you probably didn’t know is that up until now, the five original actors made $1,000,000 per episode, while Mayim Balik and Melissa Rauch (who play Amy and Bernadette respectively) only made $200,000 per episode up until and during the 10th season.

But today it has been reported that the five original actors have agreed to reduce their salary to $900,000 in order to increase Balik’s and Rauch’s pay and convince them to sign on to the 11 th and 12 th seasons, taking their per episode salary up to $450,000 each.

This is an enormous pay gap between the two actresses and the original five, especially considering they have both been on the show since season three and share equal screen time with them, with each character developing as much as them and have become fairly integral to the plot of the show (RE: Bernadette’s pregnancy and Amy now living with Sheldon).

This story, however, is not the first, nor the last, time we have heard issues over a pay gap between employees/co-workers who share the same workload, job title, etc., especially in terms of gender.

While it is not known exactly why Balik and Rauch earn a huge amount less than Johnny Galecki, Jim Parsons, Kaley Cuoco, Kunal Nayyar, and Simon Helberg (a.k.a. the original five), it would be an over reaction to assume it’s gender related right now or, indeed, make any other assumptions about the situation when none of them have spoken out about the issue or expressed displeasure with any treatment they have experienced on set.