“Everybody thinks if you’re an actor, and certainly if you’re an actor and on a television series, you must be doing very well,” Koenig said. “Well, I was barely making more than minimum the first season. The second season I was on the show … I had a contract. I was paid a week’s wage whether I worked a day or a week. So I made a little bit more. Whereas I made $10,000 for the whole year in 1967, I made $11,000 in 1968. Well, that’ll only go so far.”
I think it’s about the continuation of pay. If you made $100,000 this year but then make nothing next year… Your average really starts pulling that number down.