Equity subscription rate and benefits

Equity membership provides value for money and is proudly competitive. Our subs are reviewed annually, and will rise in 2025 with most members paying £16.50 a month - or £16 if you pay by direct debit - to be frozen until 2027. 

Equity members receive a bespoke set of benefits that are tailored to those working in the performing arts and entertainment industries, unrivalled anywhere else in one membership package – including legal support, pay and workplace negotiations, insurance, pension, Equity name, campaigns, discounts and more.  

Our members enjoy Equity rates and agreements – providing guaranteed income levels across stage, screen and other performance and entertainment genres. Our negotiations win pay rises for members, putting money in performers’ pockets, including an almost 17% increase for West End workers last year.  

Our agreements also ensure health, safety and wellbeing safeguards, tackling long hours and ensuring sufficient rest periods and a direct mechanism to tackle discrimination or abuse in the workplace whether it’s sexual harassment, racism or any form of discrimination. The union works on hundreds of cases a year, supporting individuals and groups of members with workplace issues – which would not be possible without the collective fund provided through members’ subs.    

Equity membership provides a wide package of additional benefits, including legal support, Equity name, Equity Pension, and an unrivalled insurance package for professional activities. The insurance package alone is extremely competitive and means members don’t have to take out additional cover elsewhere.

Our subs remain the cheapest of any comparable union and they have risen below inflation for a period of six years, protecting members during the pandemic years. 

New rates 

From 2025, most members will pay £16.50 a month for Equity union membership - or £16 a month if you pay by direct debit - and that will be frozen until at least 2027. Membership includes everything outlined above, and much more. Some members, including students and members aged over 66, pay less. Some high-earning members pay more, but for the vast majority of members, those working and earning up to £40,000 a year, the subs rate is £16.50 a month from February 2025.  

Find the subscription rates for 2025.

If anyone is experiencing hardship, members can apply to the union’s Benevolent Fund for support with their subs. This is easy and confidential, just email subshelp@equity.org.uk 

Our subs are the union’s main income. As an organisation, we’re not immune to the increases in prices across the economy, so our subs do need to keep up with the value of our provision and ensure we can make the voice of members heard – whether that’s through mounting campaigns to stop arts cuts, lobbying politicians to introduce legislation to regulate artificial intelligence, or making demands of bosses to improve pay and working conditions.  

As usual, the subs proposal was taken to Equity Council, which met and discussed the paper in September 2024 and voted in agreement with the recommendations. All members will receive tailored communications on their subs rate, membership benefits and receive their new Equity card in the post in the new year. 

Across theatre, our membership is over 70% of performers and stage management, and in the subsidised sector it’s over 80%, rising to 90% on the West End, providing a strong collective voice for workers in theatre. The majority of film and TV shows shot in the UK are done so on an Equity agreement, again extending unrivalled benefits and protections to this workforce. 

Louise McMullan, Equity deputy general secretary: 

“The rise in Equity’s subscriptions in 2025 is for a two-year period. It is above current rates of inflation, having remained below inflationary rises in the period since 2019. They remain the cheapest of any comparable union. 

"The rise pays for a substantial new package of benefits - such as a doubling of the accident and injury insurance payout to £300 per week. Our insurance provision had to be renewed this year, and rising insurance rates across the board presented a challenge. Equity conducted a rigorous tender process, price-compared all the possible options and secured the lowest-cost most comprehensive cover ever offered to members, at a price no individual would get. 

"We’ve removed all charges on royalties distributed though our distribution services, and made all member benefits available to every members. It also reflects the union’s improved activism and puts us on a solid footing to fight for new TV, film, and theatre agreements between now and 2026. Our £1 million strike fund is supported by subscriptions, and the extra £2.50 a month from most members shows the bosses how serious we are about using it. 

“We have substantially increased eligibility for our lowest band of subscriptions, and expanded support for members who face hardship in paying subscriptions, as well as now discounting membership for all those over 66 and recent graduates, not a select few. This package of reforms provides unrivalled union membership benefits for Equity members at a very competitive rate and ensures the strength of the union for our members.”