Delivering Value to Equity Members

We’re all committed to the craft, and bringing the best possible performances to the stage. Equity’s work making stronger agreements ensures that members know when to expect and what to expect on their paycheque. Members should have the safety, assurance, and strength that comes with fair compensation for their work. Read more about Equity and your rights here.

Equity is committed to helping you bring your best possible performance to the stage. But you need a break too. Equity’s work in negotiations ensures that everyone has the right to breaks during the day, overnight and a day off once a week.

Irregular work doesn’t mean you should have irregular support. Access to a robust health insurance plan is a key protection ensuring Equity members have extended health care when working on stages of all sizes across the country, particularly disability benefits if you are sick or injured and can't work. Read more about Equity and benefits of membership here.

We strive to do better every day, and The Equity Census has been an important tool for us to hold ourselves accountable. Everybody Counts, building on the work of the Equity Census, is a five-question online survey that collects and securely stores basic demographic information about a member's ability, age, ethnocultural or racial identity(ies) including Indigeneity, gender and sexual orientation. This info helps us understand what’s working, what isn’t, and what we need to do to better in our efforts for equitable representation and inclusion onstage and in related hiring. Read more about the Equity Census and Everybody Counts under Special Initiatives on the Benefits & Services page.

Stages across this country should be free of discrimination, and all of our theatres should be respectful and safe workplaces, free from harassment. Equity is proud to have campaigns like Not in OUR Space! that go beyond just words on paper. We all need to work hard every day to ensure healthy and productive working conditions for all professionals working in live performance across the country. Read more about Not In OUR Space here.

How many of us found our love for the stage when we were kids? Child performers bring magic to live theatre, and Equity is proud of ensuring that negotiated standards for child performer protections meet or exceed the standards of any jurisdiction. Read more about Equity's child performer advocacy in EQ Magazine } Winter 2014 and Equity's joint work with ACTRA and MPP Paul Miller which resulted in the Ontario Protecting Child Performers Act (2015). 

Spectacles and stunts and effects and more. Our live performances aren’t without their behind-the-scenes efforts to make magic on stage. Pushing the boundaries visually shouldn’t mean pushing the limits on safety. Equity has worked to support conditions that meet or exceed the basic jurisdictional requirements around safety for live performance.

The workspace goes beyond the stage. Our workplaces are protected by Equity's Respectful Workspace Policy – entrenched is the right for any artist working in live performance to have a workspace free from personal and sexual harassment or violence. This doesn’t just live in a policy but is something we strive to ensure every day. Equity is dedicated to upholding healthy and constructive industry standards in place as a result of Equity's hard work in past negotiations and its continued advocacy efforts on behalf of the membership. Visit the Service Commitments page to read more about Equity's Respectful Workspace Policy.

"The security of knowing my work schedule lets me plan my personal commitments around it. This means I don’t have to give up my other loves to go on the stage."