The Men Of 'The Big Bang Theory' Agree To Take A Big Pay Cut To Help Out Co-Stars

Well, here’s a headline we’re not used to seeing. We all know women continue to be paid less than their male counterparts, but it looks like Hollywood may be shifting—at least, if the rest of Tinseltown can take a page out of The Big Bang Theory stars’ book. The five stars who’ve been with the show since day one, which is four men and one woman, have agreed to take pay cuts in order to give their other female co-stars more pay.

This is a surprise for many reasons. Mainly because it wasn’t too long ago that Jim Parsons, Johnny Galecki and Kaley Cuoco were halting production to ink a deal for more pay. In the end, they wound up scoring $1 million per episode. That’s Friends money right there. Soon after Simon Helberg and Kunal Nayyar got a boost in their paychecks, but that left Melissa Rauch and Mayim Bialik in the dark. Which, if you watch the show, is far from fair.

When the show started, it was clear who the stars were but well into season 10, and with an 11th and 12th on the way...all seven of those cast members are as pertinent to the show as the other. No longer is Jim Parsons “the face” of this TV giant. Thankfully he, and the rest of the cast, recognized that and agreed to opt out of $100,000 from each of their salaries to insure Bialik and Rauch got their worth. In the grand scheme, those two still won't be making as much as the core five who started the show, but with their castmates’ kind gesture they could end up making $250,000 more an episode than they were before.

What’s even more surprising though is that this decision didn’t come from CBS. The network wasn’t like, “Well, those two are as important as the rest.” No, the cast had to go and get shit done for their own!

More men in Hollywood should be acting this way. It’s a shame any woman would be left out of their deserved pay for an equal day’s work. Remember when Showtime’s Shameless was on hold when Emmy Rossum wanted more? William H. Macy was all for her getting paid as much as him, but he didn’t take a pay cut for it. We love Macy, but in the case of The Big Bang Theory cast, actions speak a hell of a lot louder than words!