Disney child star salaries exposed – ‘under minimum wage’ and ‘forced’ to work

While the life of a Disney Chanel child actor might seem like all glitz and glamour, behind the scenes stars have accused the corporation of using a ‘loophole’ to underpay stars

It’s been 13 years since The Suite Life Movie premiered on the Disney Channel in March 2011 – and before that, the show itself forged a new fan-favourite sitcom from its launch in 2005.

The Suite Life of Zack and Cody launched the careers of twins Dylan and Cole Sprouse, along with stars including Brenda Song and Ashley Tisdale, who played older teens on the show. But the twins, who starred in 87 episodes of the programme from 2005 until 2008, claimed their parents “forced” them into acting from a young age.

That’s not to say their hard work didn’t pay off. Disney child stars pulled in an eye-watering salary from their time on the network, with the Sprouse twins thought to be pulling in around $20,000 each – per episode – of the show. That’s an incomprehensible amount of cash right there.

In their time on the show, they earned around $3.5million combined throughout the show’s three-season run, and went on to appear in spin-offs like The Suite Life on Deck and the movie adaptation. Miley Cyrus, meanwhile, is thought to have earned around $15,000 per episode of Hannah Montana, while Selena Gomez earned $30,000 per episode of Wizards of Waverly Place.

It wasn’t all glitz and glamour, though, and some stars have accused Disney of using financial “loopholes” to avoid paying their actors even minimum wage.

‘Forced’ to act

Suite Life stars Cole and Dylan Sprouse claimed their mum ‘forced’ them into acting from a young age (Image: DISNEY)
Today, the Sprouse twins are thought to be worth around $16million combined, after landing roles in everything from Riverdale to Beautiful Disaster. But earlier in their career, Cole claims their parents made them act to keep the family financially secure.

The pair began acting when they were only eight months old, with their mum Melanie Wright Sprouse urging the pair to get a head start. She split from their father Matthew before the twins turned one.

In a since-deleted clip posted to tumblr, Cole said: “My brother and I were put into acting when we were eight months old by our mother because we needed money. I never made the decision to join the arts or acting specifically, and so it was never really my passion.”

He later admitted on the Call Her Daddy podcast: “Both my brother and I went through a lengthy court battle at about 10, and custody was stripped from my mother and given to my father. I don’t think I’ve ever talked about this… When my father was given forced custody, we had pretty much lost everything from the youngest parts of our career. That would be Friends and Big Daddy.

Cole opened up about his earnings on Call Her Daddy (Image: Getty Images)
“My mother was an incredibly wonderful and artistic woman, but she was financially the most irresponsible woman ever.” He added: “By the time my brother and I got to the Disney Channel, we were good. It was a huge boon to us. It was in many ways, a life-saving show. It provided us with an amount of stability and consistency, and routine, that really was needed for my brother and I at the time.”

The star admitted it wasn’t “passion” that drove him to acting, claiming: “I think there’s two types of kids within the child acting business. There’s, like the ‘thespian children’ who choose to do it, and then there’s the working class kids that, in our case at least… I mean it started, really, as a means to put bread on the table.”

He doesn’t “regret” his work as a child actor, and says he was “granted a life of primarily financial stability and surplus” – but he had to “trade” in his childhood to achieve it.

Legal loophole

Liv and Maddie star Joey Bragg claimed Disney had a legal loophole to avoid paying minimum wage (Image: Disney Channel via Getty Images)
Liv and Maddie star Joey Bragg claimed last year that child actors on the network were paid less than minimum wage due to a contract ‘loophole’. The actor starred in the show from 2013 until 2017, but in its fourth season, the show was rebooted and named Liv and Maddie: Cali Style.

Braggs claimed this is because if a show is rebooted or axed after its third season, Disney doesn’t have to pay the full Writers Guilt of America rates. On the Cash Cuties podcast, he claimed: “They have a deal with, I don’t know if it’s the unions or the AMPTP, but they had a deal where the first three seasons of a show, you get paid 88 percent of scale.

The star slammed the network during a podcast appearance (Image: joeybragg / Instagram)
“So it’s 88 percent of like minimum wage, pretty much, for the crew, and then the idea is, you work on a show, it becomes popular, you go four, five, six seasons, and you get 100 percent, or whatever that is. But then, they, by the third season, even if the show’s popular, they reboot it as a brand new show. We were Liv and Maddie for the first three seasons, and the last season was Liv and Maddie: Cali Style.”

Similarly, The Suite Life of Zack and Cody only lasted three seasons before being rebooted as The Suite Life on Deck, though popular shows like Hannah Montana and Wizards of Waverly Place managed four seasons each. Shows like Shake It Up and Even Stevens, however, ended at three seasons before scoring TV movie versions.

No royalties

At least some of the Lizzie McGuire stars received no royalties from the long-running show
Lizzie McGuire actor Robert Carradine may have already been an adult when he starred as the dad to Hilary Duff’s character, but he exposed a shocking truth about royalties the cast earned – and hinted that child stars Hilary and Jake Thomas may have been treated in the same manner.

Carradine revealed he earned absolutely nothing in royalties for his role in the Disney Channel series from 2001 to 2004, as well as for his role in the movie adaptation. He shared a snap of a pay cheque from Disney Worldwide Services Inc to social media, which revealed “pay zero and no/100 dollars” to Triple Tap Productions, dated 2019.

He captioned the post: “Why we’re striking…” amid the US Screen Actors Guild action. It is unclear whether Hilary made royalties from her titular role, though she is thought to have made around $15,000 per episode of the programme – with her salary coming in at just under $1million for the entire 65 episode run.

It is said that Hilary received nothing in royalties from her time on the show, which plastered her likeness across its merchandise. The company pulled in more than $100million in merch sales from the project.