Union vs Non Union Casting: What Producers Should Know
The union vs non union casting decision is almost never made in a casting room. It gets made in a budget spreadsheet, four to six weeks earlier, by someone looking at a cast line and a contingency. By the time talent walks into one of our rooms at 545 8th Ave, that choice has fixed the turnout, the session length and who is legally allowed to read for the part.
We run eight casting and audition rooms in the Garment District and watch several hundred sessions a year. What follows is the producer’s side: signatory status, agreement tiers, what you pay on top of scale, and what each choice does to the day you booked. Every figure is published by SAG-AFTRA and reflects the agreements and rate sheets posted at the time of writing, so check the current sheet before budgeting.
What union vs non union casting changes from the producer’s seat
Union casting means your production company has signed a collective bargaining agreement with a performers’ union, usually SAG-AFTRA, which covers film, television, commercials, new media and video games in the United States. Non-union means you signed nothing, you set the rates, and no agreement governs hours, overtime, residuals or benefits.
That is the whole legal difference.
You cannot cast a SAG-AFTRA member on a non-union project, which removes a large share of experienced New York performers from your pool. Going union brings weekly reporting, a security deposit and a payroll house. And the session changes shape, because sign-in sheets, clearance and Taft-Hartley paperwork happen in the room or right after it.
Signatory paperwork and classification questions belong with a SAG-AFTRA business representative and with your own counsel. Nothing here is legal advice.
What becoming a SAG-AFTRA signatory involves, and how long it takes
Signatory status means your production entity has executed the applicable SAG-AFTRA agreement for that specific project. It is per project, not per company, and a business representative grants it after a document review.
SAG-AFTRA’s Low Budget Agreement page sets out the sequence. You submit a preliminary information form, a representative contacts you, and you supply the project documents: a line-item budget, the shooting script, formation documents and an authorisation form for the employing entity, chain-of-title material, and a pre-production cast list with the day-out-of-days. After reviewing those, the business representative specifies the financial assurances required, usually a security deposit by cashier’s cheque or wire.
The same page says to apply no less than four to six weeks before your first date of work, counting travel, rehearsal and principal photography. The order of operations is blunt: no performer travel, no rehearsals including table reads, no principal photography until you are signatory and project clearance is granted.
That four to six weeks is what trips up first-time producers. A casting session is not principal photography, so for most film agreements you can audition while the application is in review. Commercials are the exception, covered below.
Which SAG-AFTRA agreement fits which budget band
SAG-AFTRA publishes tiered low budget contracts so a small production is not quoting rates built for a studio feature. The table below comes from SAG-AFTRA’s own Low Budget Entertainment Contracts one sheet, dated March 2026, and from the per-contract rate sheets. Day rates are the 1 July 2026 performer figures from SAG-AFTRA’s 2026 to 2030 rate sheets for each tier, of which the Low Budget sheet is linked below. Ceilings and rates move each contract cycle, so confirm the current sheet before budgeting.
| Agreement | Budget ceiling | What it is for | Day performer rate (from 1 Jul 2026) | What the producer takes on |
| Micro-Budget Project | $20,000 | Single or episodic, no runtime limit | Negotiable | No nudity, simulated sex or stunts; performer acknowledgment for all |
| Student Film | $35,000 | Single, 35 minutes maximum | Deferrable | Professional principals only; background not covered |
| Short Project Agreement (SPA) | $50,000 | Single, 40 minutes maximum | Deferrable | All principals eligible; background limited to 3 per project in zones |
| Ultra Low Budget Project (UPA) | $300,000 | Single, no runtime limit | $257 | Professional principals only; background not covered; payroll house required |
| Moderate Low Budget Project (MPA) | $700,000 | Single, no runtime limit | $449 (weekly $1,560) | All principals eligible; background not covered unless an incentive applies |
| Low Budget Agreement (LBA) | $2,000,000 | Single, 80 minute minimum, theatrical release permitted | $834 (weekly $2,896) | Up to 30 background per day in zones; payroll house; security deposit |
| New Media Agreement | Under $50,000 | Episodic content for new media platforms | Deferrable | Up to 10 background per day in zones; coverage under employment verification |
| Special New Media, Categories A to D | $50,000 to $1,000,000 and above | Episodic; single or episodic in higher categories | Refer to rate sheet; Category D pays full TV rates | Taft-Hartley applies; background up to 10 per day |
Two footnotes matter. Every low budget entertainment contract requires the project to be filmed entirely in the United States. And the diversity and background incentives can lift a ceiling: the same page gives a $2,000,000 budget limit, rising to a $3,000,000 total production cost maximum with the Diversity-in-Casting Incentive. Commercials sit outside all of it, under their own Commercials Contract covering advertising generally under three minutes for television, theatrical, internet and new media.
What a producer actually pays on top of scale
Scale, the contractual minimum for a performer category, is the smallest line in a union cast budget. Leaving out the additions is why cast budgets come in ten to fifteen per cent light.
Pension and health contributions sit on top of gross performer compensation and are paid by the producer, not deducted. SAG-AFTRA’s published Low Budget Theatrical rate sheet for 2026 to 2030 sets the contribution at 22 per cent for performers and 21.5 per cent for background actors, effective 6 September 2026. Those percentages get renegotiated, so re-read them each cycle.
Then the rest of the stack. Employer payroll taxes, because performers are employees. A payroll house fee, since the Ultra Low Budget and Low Budget agreements both require an entertainment payroll service. A refundable security deposit, sized by your business representative and returned with interest once compliance is verified. Overtime, meal penalties, travel and residuals, set out in the agreement text for your tier.
Non-union has none of that structure, which is the attraction. You negotiate a day rate, you still owe payroll taxes and workers’ compensation, and you carry the whole risk of a dispute with no grievance procedure.
Taft-Hartley: casting a non-member on a union project
A Taft-Hartley report is the form a signatory producer files when it employs a performer who is not yet a SAG-AFTRA member. The name comes from the Labor Management Relations Act of 1947, which made the closed shop illegal and allowed union membership to be required only on or after the 30th day of employment. That window is what lets a signatory production hire one.
The filing sits with the producer or the casting director, never the performer. SAG-AFTRA’s production checklist for theatrical and television requires the report in writing within 15 days of the first date of employment, or 25 days on an overnight location, and notes that non-compliance can bring liquidated damages.
So the cost is administrative rather than a line item. You need a headshot and resume for each non-member, filed inside 15 days. Collect both at the casting session, because chasing a headshot from someone you met once in a hallway four weeks ago is slow work.
One principal performer report makes that performer eligible to join SAG-AFTRA. Background work is three days on a SAG-AFTRA project. Eligibility is a real benefit you are handing someone, worth saying out loud.
Global Rule One, and why one union contract on a non-union film does not work
Global Rule One is the SAG-AFTRA membership rule that no member shall render services, or agree to render services, for any employer that has not executed a basic minimum agreement with the union which is in full force and effect, in any jurisdiction where a SAG-AFTRA national collective bargaining agreement is in place. SAG-AFTRA’s Global Rule One page states that it applies worldwide, and that violating it can bring discipline from a reprimand to expulsion.
For a producer, that rule settles a question which comes up constantly. A project is union or it is not. You cannot sign one performer to a union contract and run the rest of the cast non-union, and a casting director offering to do so is offering something that costs the performer their membership.
So, can a SAG actor work in a non-union film? No, not while the project stays non-union in a jurisdiction covered by a national agreement. The member’s route is to ask you to become signatory. Yours is to decide whether that performer is worth four to six weeks and the paperwork.
One route around it exists, and it is the performer’s to take, not yours. A member who resigns to financial core status becomes a fee paying non-member: SAG-AFTRA’s own page describes the step as quitting the union and giving up the card and member benefits, and someone who takes it may not present as a SAG-AFTRA member on a resume, a headshot or an electronic submission. Having left, they sit outside Global Rule One and can take non-union work.
Station 12 and cast clearance
Station 12 is SAG-AFTRA’s cast clearance process: a check that each performer you intend to employ is in good standing before they work. A signatory producer runs it on everyone, member and non-member alike.
Timing differs by agreement. The theatrical and television production checklist asks for all performers to be cleared at least one week before employment begins, and states clearance will not be issued unless the producer’s pre-production obligations are satisfied. Other agreements set their own windows on their own checklists, and they are shorter, so read the one for your tier. Online clearance runs through SAG-AFTRA’s iActor system, and the New York office registers casting offices for it on (212) 827-1418.
Clearance is the gate, and a missing adherence letter or an unpaid security deposit closes it. Producers find that out on a Friday for a Monday start more often than anyone would like.
How the New York talent pool differs
New York is a union town for performers in a way most of the country is not. The deep bench of people who can hold a two-hander in a cold read and come back for a callback without being asked twice is overwhelmingly SAG-AFTRA, Actors’ Equity Association or both. Global Rule One takes all of them off your list the moment you stay non-union.
What you get instead is a younger, less credited and genuinely large pool. Casting through Breakdown Services and its Actors Access platform, where most New York breakdowns are posted, will fill a non-union session. It fills it differently: more submissions, a wider spread of experience, a higher no-show rate because nobody’s union standing depends on turning up.
Union sessions behave the other way. Fewer submissions, pre-read by representation, tighter arrival windows, and a hard stop because the next job starts at six. A non-union open call on a Saturday backs the hallway up by eleven. A union callback on a Tuesday afternoon runs eight people through in ninety minutes with the waiting area never holding more than three.
Union vs non-union across the four things you are budgeting
| Union (SAG-AFTRA signatory) | Non-union | |
| Casting turnout | Smaller, filtered by agents and managers; reliable arrival | Larger, less filtered; higher no-show rate; more first-time readers |
| Cost per shoot day | Scale by tier, plus 22 per cent performer pension and health per the 2026 to 2030 rate sheet, plus payroll house fees, overtime and residuals | Negotiated day rate, plus payroll taxes and workers’ compensation; no benefits or residuals |
| Paperwork | Signatory application 4 to 6 weeks out, security deposit, weekly pension and health reporting, Station 12 clearance, Taft-Hartley within 15 days, final cast list within 120 days of wrapping principal photography or 90 days of completing the picture, whichever comes first | Your own contracts, releases and payroll; no union filings |
| Risk | Defined obligations with a business representative to call; liquidated damages for late filings | No grievance channel; disputes go to lawyers; a member who works for you breaches Global Rule One |
What changes inside the casting room
Non-union sessions run long and arrive in waves. You are reading more people, many of whom have not done this often, and you need a waiting area that absorbs a backlog instead of pushing it into a shared corridor. Our 14A casting room, from $130 on a five hour minimum, is where we point high-turnout days. The hallway is the part producers forget to budget for.
Union callbacks are the opposite shape. Six to twelve people in scheduled slots, decision-makers in the room, and the flat room fee matters more than square footage. A smaller room such as 22C at $85 on a five hour minimum handles a callback day without paying for space nobody sits in. How session volume maps to room size in a New York casting rental is the first thing to settle, and the audition and casting rooms on floors 14, 22 and 23 list capacity and daylight.
Commercials add a step that catches producers out. Under the Commercials Contract a signatory has to be attached before auditions and casting begin, not only before the shoot, and an Exhibit E audition sign-in form must be available at auditions and returned to the Commercials Department within 15 business days of the audition date. If your agency is the signatory, confirm it in writing before you book the room.
Theatre runs on a different union. Actors’ Equity Association covers stage performers and stage managers, and its showcase and reading codes are membership rules rather than employer contracts, so a non-Equity reading in a 99 seat house is governed by what Equity lets its members do, not by anything you sign. For live musicians, the American Federation of Musicians is a third union.
Pre-session checklist
Before talent walks in, these should be settled rather than in progress:
- Signatory status confirmed in writing for this project, and project clearance granted by a business representative.
- Station 12 clearance submitted for every performer, one week ahead for film and television, per the checklist for your tier otherwise.
- Audition sign-in sheets printed, someone assigned to collect them, a reminder set for the 15 business day return.
- A Taft-Hartley folder: a headshot and resume collected on the day from every non-member, with the 15 day filing date on the calendar.
- Sides, scripts and any nudity rider material issued in advance, not handed over at the door.
- A certificate of insurance naming the studio as additional insured, which most New York casting spaces require before you get keys. The limits and wording a casting space will accept on a COI are narrower than most producers expect.
- The room booked with the right shape: a larger casting room for high-turnout open calls, a smaller room for a scheduled callback day, a private room with a closed door for embargoed material, or a daylight audition room for on-camera reads.
- Reader, camera operator and session runner confirmed, and the booking and lobby arrival details sent to everyone attending.
When non-union is genuinely the right call
Not often, and the honest cases are narrow. A proof of concept with no distribution plan and a cast of two. A branded social video where the performer is a real customer. A music video on a budget that would not clear one union day. Material needing a non-actor’s actual skill.
Everything else is worth running both ways in the budget first.
FAQs
Can a SAG actor work in a non-union film?
No. Global Rule One bars members from rendering services for any employer that has not executed a current basic minimum agreement with SAG-AFTRA, in any jurisdiction covered by a national agreement, and SAG-AFTRA states it applies worldwide. A member who does it risks discipline up to expulsion. The exception is a performer who has resigned to financial core status, which SAG-AFTRA describes as quitting the union. Offering an individual union contract on a non-union project does not fix it.
How does Taft-Hartley make someone SAG-AFTRA eligible?
A signatory producer files a Taft-Hartley report when it employs a non-member. One principal performer report makes that performer eligible to join SAG-AFTRA; background work requires three days on a SAG-AFTRA project. The report is due within 15 days of the first date of employment, 25 on an overnight location, and must come from the producer or casting director.
How long does it take to become a SAG-AFTRA signatory?
SAG-AFTRA’s Low Budget Agreement page says to apply no less than four to six weeks before your first date of work, counting travel, rehearsal and principal photography. The review covers budget, script, formation documents, chain of title and cast list. No performer work may start before clearance.
Do I need to be signatory before auditions or just before the shoot?
For most film agreements you can hold auditions while the application is in review, but no performer travel, rehearsal or principal photography may begin until you are signatory and cleared. Commercials are stricter: the Commercials Contract requires a signatory attached before auditions and casting begin, and sign-in sheets returned within 15 business days.
What is Station 12 and do I need it for a casting session?
Station 12 is SAG-AFTRA’s cast clearance check on whether a performer is in good standing. You need it before employment, not before an audition. Film and television clearance goes in at least one week before work starts, other tiers per their own checklist, and it is not issued until the producer’s pre-production obligations are satisfied.
