(Culture)

Emmy Rossum Nearing Pay Parity On Shameless After Years Of Being Underpaid

Update 12/14/2016:

Major victory for Emmy Rossum: The Shameless star will officially be getting equal pay for her work on the Showtime dramedy. But salary parity is not all—going forward she will be earning more than co-star William H. Macy to make up for being paid less over the course of seven seasons. The actress expressed excitement about her well-deserved win on social media to the virtual applause of women everywhere.

Congratulations, Emmy! Now we can get to Season 8.

Original:

Shameless star Emmy Rossum is becoming quite the activist. Not only has she been outspoken on Twitter in defense of minority groups—as anti-semitic trolls continue to attack her online—but she’s also making a significant and public stand for equal pay for equal work. After years of being compensated at a significantly lower rate than her Shameless co-star William H. Macy, the network is finally offering her equal pay for the eighth season of the show; however, Variety is reporting that she’s holding out to be paid more than Macy to make up for the fact that she’s earned so much less than him over the last seven seasons of the show. This is a boss move if ever we’ve seen one, and we couldn’t be more inspired by her stand. The actress also recently directed an episode of the show, a move which she told Chelsea Handler she’d finally pushed for after years of hinting at her desire to do so to no effect. We hope to see more women across all industries following Rossum’s lead by asserting both themselves and their value as every protest paves the way for future equality.