Louis C.K. wears a lot of hats to deliver FX’s Louie to your living room. He’s writer, producer, director, editor and performer on the show. Those multiple roles require he pay plenty of union dues. C.K. complies–show biz people love their unions–but he refused to pay $28,000 in union contributions for work he did in 2013. The bill was too high, he said. This week a federal judge disagreed and ordered C.K. to pay.
The lawsuit boiled down to technical definitions about C.K.’s latitude as “controlling employee” of his production company, Pig Newton. Since different jobs require different dues, at issue was C.K.’s claims about how he divvies up his time. One interesting fact emerged. C.K. claims he spends only 15% of his time editing the show, and that editing accounts for just 8% of his income. (It will come as no surprise to editors that stars get paid more!) But with editing being responsible for the final product, it’s amazing C.K. doesn’t actually devote more of his time to it.
