Editing Screen Actors Guild (section)

== Rules and procedure ==

=== Becoming a member ===
An actor was eligible to join the Screen Actors Guild by meeting the criteria in any of the following three categories: principal actor in a SAG production, background actor (originally the "three voucher rule"), and one-year member of an affiliated union (with a principal role). The basic categories were:
* ''Principal actor:'' Any actor who works as a principal actor for a minimum of one day on a project (film, commercial, TV show, etc.) under a producer's agreement with SAG, and the actor has been paid at the appropriate SAG daily, three-day, or weekly rate was then considered "SAG-eligible". A SAG-eligible actor could work in other SAG or non-SAG productions up to 30 days, during which that actor was classified as a "[[Taft–Hartley Act#Entertainment industry|Taft–Hartley]]". After the 30-day Taft–Hartley period has expired, the actor could not work on any further SAG productions until first joining SAG, by: paying the initiation fee with the first half-year minimum membership dues, and agreeing to abide by the Guild's rules and bylaws.
* ''Background actor:'' For years, SAG had the "three voucher rule". After collecting three valid union vouchers for three separate days of work, a background actor could become SAG-eligible; however, employment must have been confirmed with payroll data, not vouchers. SAG productions required a minimum number of SAG members be employed as background actors before a producer was permitted to [[Employment|hire]] a non-union background actor. For television productions in the West Coast Zones, the minimum number of SAG background actors was 21 (25 in the New York Zone), for commercials the minimum was 40, and for feature films, the minimum was 57 in the West Coast zones (85 in the New York zone). In rare circumstances, due to the uniqueness of a role, or constraints on the numbers of available SAG actors or last-minute cancellations, those minimums were unable to be met. When this happened, [[film producer|producers]] were permitted to fill one or more of those union spots with non-union actors. The non-union actor chosen to fill the union spot was then issued a union background [[voucher]] for the day, and that non-union actor was entitled to all the same [[employee benefit|benefits]] and pay that the union actor would have received under that voucher. This was called a Taft–Hartley voucher. The SAG-Eligible background actor could continue working in non-union productions, but after obtaining 3 Taft–Hartley vouchers were given a 30-day window where they were allowed to work as many SAG jobs as they wish. After the 30-day window had expired the actor became a "Must Join" with SAG, meaning they could no longer work any SAG projects without formally joining the union. They could continue to work non-union jobs, however, until they officially became a SAG member.<ref>{{cite web|last=Handel|first=Jonathan|title=SAG-AFTRA Merger Means Tougher Admissions, Potentially Costlier Membership|url=http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/sag-aftra-merger-dual-membership-cost-284453|work=The Hollywood Reporter|date=24 January 2012|access-date=5 December 2013|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130731052831/http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/sag-aftra-merger-dual-membership-cost-284453|archive-date=31 July 2013|url-status=live}}</ref>
* ''Member of an affiliated union:'' Members in good standing, for at least one year, of any of the other unions affiliated with the AAAA, and who had worked as a principal at least once in an area of the affiliated union's jurisdiction, and who had been paid for their work in that principal role, were eligible to join SAG.

=== Initiation fee and membership dues ===
Members joining the Los Angeles, New York, or Miami SAG locals were assessed an initial fee to join the Guild of $3,000. At the time of initiation, the first minimum semi-annual membership dues payment of $58 must have also been paid, bringing the total amount due upon initiation into the Guild to $3,058.<ref>[http://www.sag.org/sagWebApp/Content/Public/joinsag_HowTo.htm#top] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071016064057/http://www.sag.org/sagWebApp/Content/Public/joinsag_HowTo.htm#top|date=October 16, 2007}}</ref> All other SAG locals still assessed initiation fees at the previous rate. Members from other locales who worked in Los Angeles, New York, or Miami after joining were charged the difference between the fee they paid their local and the higher rate in those markets.

Membership dues were calculated and due semi-annually, and were based upon the member's earnings from SAG productions. The minimum annual dues amount was $116, with an additional 1.85% of the performer's income up to $200,000. Income from $200,000 to $500,000 was assessed at 0.5%, and income from $500,000 to $1 million was assessed at 0.25%. For the calculation of dues, there was a total earnings cap at $1 million. Therefore, the maximum dues payable in any one calendar year by any single member was limited to $6,566.

SAG members who became delinquent in their dues without formally requesting a [[leave of absence]] from the Guild were assessed late [[Late fee|penalties]], and risked being ejected from the Guild and could be forced to pay the initiation fee again to regain their membership.

=== Global Rule One ===
The SAG Constitution and Bylaws stated "No member shall work as a performer or make an agreement to work as a performer for any producer who has not executed a basic minimum agreement with the Guild which is in full force and effect",<ref>{{cite web|title=Global Rule One|publisher=SAG-AFTRA|url=https://www.sagaftra.org/contracts-industry-resources/global-rule-one|access-date=2016-08-10}}</ref> and this became known as ''Rule One'' of the organization. Every SAG performer, as a condition of membership, agreed to abide by this and all other SAG rules; thus SAG members could not perform in any non-union project that was within SAG's jurisdiction. Beginning in 2002 the Guild pursued a policy of worldwide enforcement of Rule One, and renamed it ''Global Rule One''.

=== Unique stage names ===
{{main|Stage name}}

Like other organizations that represent actors, SAG rules stipulated that no two members could have identical working names; many actors were thus prevented from registering under their own names and had to make changes. Some maintained their usual name but added a middle initial; others adopted a stage name quite different from their legal name to comply with this rule. Notable examples include [[Michael Keaton]], [[Michael J. Fox]] and [[Emma Stone]], whose birth names "[[Michael Douglas]]", "[[Michael Fox (American actor)|Michael Fox]]" and "Emily Stone", respectively, had already been registered by other actors.