Even mega A-listers have reportedly suffered a big blow to their usually fat pay checks. According to the journo, Charmaine Sheh, whose career skyrocketed to new heights thanks to her role in Story of Yanxi Palace, received just HK$20,000 (S$3,400) to attend a ribbon-cutting ceremony, proving just how bad things are for the Hongkong showbiz industry right now.

For comparison, stars in China can command massive appearance fees of at least $1mil yuan (S$205,000), which we reckon is closer to Charmaine’s usual rate. How do we know this? The 45-year-old is said to live in a luxury apartment where rent goes up to HK$320,000 (S$54,700) a month.

This revelation led some particularly resourceful netizens to compile a list of how much TVB artistes are allegedly paid per episode. While the information is believed to be quite outdated — not to mention unverified — and many of those mentioned have since left the station, it does give an idea of their remunerations.

Among those mentioned on the list are Sheren Tang, who earned HK$80,000 (S$13,700) per ep; Roger Kwok and Kevin Cheng, who each pulled HK$70,000 (S$12,000) per ep; Charmaine with HK$65,000 (S$11,100); and Raymond Lam, who drew HK$50,000 (S$8,600) per ep.

And that’s for the household names. Those who are not so well-known have purportedly been paid less than HK$500 (about S$86).

TVB seems to have a history of severely underpaying their artistes.

When actor Auston Lam announced his departure from the company last year, he revealed that he could only be guaranteed an annual income of HK$12,000 (S$2,100). Actress Christy Chan also said she was basically “cheap labour” and that she was once paid just HK$28 (S$5) per hour to film a show in Vietnam.

No wonder TVB ah jie Liza Wang felt compelled to deliver that rousing speech of hers at the Anniversary Awards. You know, the one where she called on the station to consider increasing the salaries of its artistes, at least after the pandemic has died down.

Photos: Sina, Charmaine Sheh/Weibo, RakuRaku, Liza Wang/Instagram