General Hospital's Sarah Joy Brown (ex-Claudia Zacchara/Carly Corinthos) reveals that the gender pay gap applies to the soap opera industry, as well.
As more and more major companies around the world pledge to reveal their gender pay gaps, soap opera alum Sarah Joy Brown decided to open up about the unfair pay she feels she received while starring on General Hospital.
The actress, who played Carly Corinthos from 1996 to 2001 and Claudia Zacchara from 2008 to 2009, revealed that her male costars Steve Burton (Jason Morgan) and Maurice Benard (Sonny Corinthos) received much bigger paychecks for their work on the ABC drama series.
"For all of the many years I work with Steve Burton and Maurice Bernard, all of the years, at ABC, even after winning three Emmys, I was paid less then 1/2 their salary. #Truth" she wrote.
Brown's post received hundreds of comments, some supportive and some not so. For example, one fan pointed out that Benard and Burton have seniority, so the pay difference perhaps made sense. Another wrote: "General Hospital needs to do better. Women are the reason the soaps are on the air. They should treat women of equal or greater talent at least as well as the men."
Brown's reveal comes in the midst of major companies like EasyJet and Virgin Money making their gender pay gap figures public. Meanwhile, television writers are currently circulating an anonymous spreadsheet to fight the gender pay gap in the writing industry.
In addition to starring on GH, Brown played Julia Jackson on As the World Turns from 2004 to 2005, Angela Jones on The Bold and the Beautiful from 2009 to 2011, and Madison James on Days of our Lives from 2011 to 2012.
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