What does Plus Ten mean?
Plus Ten refers to the practice of grossing up a performer’s negotiated fee by ten percent — adding the agent’s commission on top of the agreed quote rather than having the commission come out of the quoted fee. When a deal is struck ‘plus ten,’ the performer receives their full quoted fee and the agent’s ten percent commission is paid separately by the production company. This structure is most common in commercial and commercial print work.
Example:The commercial booking confirmed the child actor’s day rate plus ten — meaning the production would pay her quoted rate in full and also pay the agency’s ten percent commission separately, so the family would receive the full negotiated amount without any agent fee deducted.
Example: The agent explained the plus ten structure to the family: rather than the child receiving her quoted rate minus the ten percent commission, the production adds ten percent to the quoted fee and pays that directly to the agency — meaning the child’s net earnings equal her quoted rate.
Did you know?
Understanding whether a quoted rate is plus ten or commission-included is an important detail in evaluating any commercial booking offer. The plus ten structure benefits performers financially relative to a commission-included deal at the same quoted rate — but it also means the production’s total talent cost is ten percent higher than the quoted rate, which is why productions budget for talent costs on a plus-ten basis.
You can also find “Plus Ten” and related terms in this category: Administrative and Financial.
