Sophia Bush's 'One Tree Hill' Salary Was Shockingly Low

"You get hired, and especially as a young person, you don't have a quote. If you've not been a regular on something before, you have literally no quote. So when I started on that show, pretty much everyone was coming from something. Hilarie [Burton] had been a VJ, [Bethany] Joy [Lenz] had been on soap operas. I had been the philanthropy chair of my sorority at USC."

"Once I paid 10% to my managers, 10% to my agents, 5% to my lawyers, paid a publicist fee, paid my taxes, and then paid the $3,000 a month that my two-bedroom apartment in Wilmington cost me, I was taking home about $3,000 an episode."

"When you sign a TV contract, you sign a contract for six years."

"They can cancel your show at any time, but you can't leave or ask for a raise because you're on a six-year deal."

Sophia Bush earned significantly less than several One Tree Hill co-stars because she entered the series with limited prior television experience. Inexperienced actors often have no salary quote when hired, while many castmates arrived with established credits. After paying managers, agents, lawyers, a publicist fee, taxes, and $3,000 monthly rent for a Wilmington two-bedroom, Bush netted about $3,000 per episode. One Tree Hill ran nine seasons, and Bush could not renegotiate her salary for most of the run because initial TV contracts commonly lock actors into six-year deals that prevent raises or exits.

Read at Bustle