- The Golden Globes will no longer pay a $75,000 salary to its voting members.
- A Golden Globes spokesperson said it made the change to prevent the perception of bias.
- Other major awards like the Oscars and Emmys do not pay voters a salary.
The voters who decided which films and television shows would receive a Golden Globe were for years paid for their service.
Not anymore.
Golden Globes President Helen Hoehne told the 50 members affected by the decision in a Zoom call on Friday that they would no longer receive their $75,000 annual salary, The Los Angeles Times reported.
A Golden Globes spokesperson confirmed the decision to Business Insider. “The Golden Globes describes the change in policy as an acknowledgment that continuing to pay members could add to a perception of bias in voting,” the spokesperson said.
The 50 voting members who were receiving salary payments were former members of the Hollywood Foreign Press Association, the nonprofit group of entertainment journalists that built the Golden Globes into a major awards powerhouse, rivaling even the Oscars.
However, after a series of scandals in 2021 rocked the HFPA, causing NBC to pull the Golden Globes from the air, Hollywood media firm Penske Media Eldridge acquired the group and turned the Golden Globes into a for-profit entity. The program returned to television in 2023.
The spokesperson said that the voting body for the Golden Globes now numbers 300 and is made up of entertainment journalists from 85 countries.
Other popular Hollywood awards shows, like the Academy Awards, the Emmys, and the Grammy, do not pay their voting members a salary.