While more and more actresses are beginning to be paid the same as their male co-stars, change hasn’t come as fast for the music industry. In a new interview with Grazia, Haim reveal that they had to take action themselves to receive equal pay. After playing an unnamed music festival last year, the sisters say they found out they were compensated ten times less than a male act on the same lineup, despite being billed just under them. “We had been told that our fee was very low because you played at the festival in the hope that you’d get played on the radio,’ Danielle Haim says. “We didn’t think twice about it, but we later found out that someone was getting paid ten times more than us. And because of that we fired our agent.” Alana Haim adds, “It’s fucked up not even to be paid half the same amount. But to be paid a tenth of that amount of money? It was insane.” Though they count the firing as a victory, the band still isn’t sure they’ll be paid fairly going forward because the industry isn’t transparent with artists about money. Danielle explains, “It’s so hard to check: everything’s so secretive about how much people are getting paid, and that’s bullshit.”
