Pay grades and fair increments in event management and wedding services

Most event firms discover their pay problem in the middle of a load-in. A lead rigger hears that the loader beside him gets the same day rate. A coordinator learns that the planner who joined after her was offered more over a phone call. Nobody wrote anything down, so nobody can explain it.

Offers get made in a hurry. A wedding planner is short of a stage manager for a sangeet next Friday, so a figure is agreed on a call and remembered by one person. Multiply that by forty crew and a dozen core staff and you have a pay map nobody can defend. The cure is a short written structure, shown to the team.

The event production houses pay page shows how technical grades can look, and the service behind this post is compensation benchmarking. The wider picture sits on the event and wedding hub.

• Monthly core: assistant coordinator, coordinator, planner, lead planner, producer, account manager, designer, accounts executive.
• Day crew: floor helper, rigger, truss hand, light operator, sound engineer, FOH technician, emcee, hospitality captain, host, valet, driver.

Core staff need grades with ranges. Crew need a card with a rate, a unit and a payment date. Merge them and the producer ends up explaining why a salaried coordinator earns less per day than a freelance gaffer, which is a pointless argument.

1. 1

   Describe each rung by an event task

   Level one carries a single function, such as vendor follow-up or guest list. Level two owns a standard event with a run of show. Level three owns a two-venue weekend and briefs the captains. Level four owns the client, the budget and the sign-off.

2. 2

   Attach a pay range, not a point

   A range lets a strong level-two person earn more than a weak one without a title fight. Keep ranges narrow so that the rung still means something.

3. 3

   Write the move-up evidence

   Events led without a senior, vendor negotiation done, client thank-you notes, a new joiner trained, a clean settlement of the vendor ledger.

4. 4

   Share rungs and ranges, keep salaries private

   The team sees the ladder. Nobody sees a colleague's figure.

5. 5

   Put the ladder in the offer letter

   A new planner reads the same rung language that the existing planners were graded against.

Group / grade                    What the grade means
Floor: helper                    Carries, dresses the mandap, follows the floor plan
Floor: senior hand               Reads the plan, leads a four-person changeover
Rigging: truss hand              Assembles under a rigger, never works at height alone
Rigging: lead rigger             Signs off the truss and the chain hoists
Sound and light: assistant       Cables, cases, gaffer tape, DMX patching
Sound and light: operator        Runs a desk under supervision
Sound and light: lead            Owns the system, handles FOH complaints
Hospitality: host                Registration desk, welcome drinks, guest lists
Hospitality: captain             Owns a section or the VIP lounge
Driver: local / outstation       Separate rates, night halt allowance written in
Unit paid: day / half-day / event / late-finish hour
Settlement: signed event sheet, paid within ____ days

The card names grade and unit. Add rules for a ten-hour day versus a half-day, for travel to outstation venues and for a strike that runs past midnight. Print the payment date on the same sheet.

The best time to review core staff is the quiet weeks after the wedding season or after the big exhibition quarter. Memories are fresh and nobody is mid-load-in. Look at events led, client feedback, vendor settlements closed and juniors taught. Do not hand everyone the same uplift. Do not keep the formula secret.

Revise the crew card before the next muhurat rush and tell the crew first. Changing a rate in the second week of the season feels like a trick.

Decide how client gratuity is shared, for example pooled among crew who worked that event. Decide whether advances for travel are recovered from the same settlement. Put both rules on the card. Silence on tips is where resentment breeds.

• A lead rigger paid more because he asked loudly, a quieter equal paid less.
• A catch-up jump after a skipped review in a busy year.
• Vendor ledger delays that spill onto crew payment dates.
• A rate card edited mid-season.

To have a ladder and a card built for your own mix of planners, producers and crew, send your details through the requirements form. For the exit side of the same problem, read why people leave event firms.