‘Liv and Maddie’ Star Joey Bragg Says Disney Channel ‘Cuts a Lot of Corners’ Amid Strikes

As the ongoing WGA and SAG-AFTRA strikes continue, former Disney Channel actor Joey Bragg is opening up about a topic that he believes should be discussed more: child actor's salaries.

In a recent YouTube channel interview (with Cash Cuties), the Liv and Maddie star got candid about his earnings while working on the Disney Channel original series — and made several claims about how executives "f--- over" child stars.

"They f--- over kids so much," said Bragg, who played Joey Rooney on the Disney sitcom for four seasons from 2013-2017. "I'm a firm believer that when you're a child actor in a Disney Channel show, it's not just the child that is doing the job. It's also the parent or guardian who has to be with them all the time."

"With most Disney kids they are wealthy. Their parents are wealthy, they can take time off work," he continued. "But my family couldn't do that and afford to pay the mortgage... You also don't make residuals on a Disney Channel show because they have something worked out with the unions. Disney cuts a lot of corners when it comes to stuff like that." 

"It's on Disney+. That's one of the things we're striking about," Bragg added. "Because my show was Netflix's No. 1 watched show when it was on Netflix, and the streaming rights got bought by Disney for like millions upon millions upon millions of dollars, and the creators, nobody saw any of that money."

The Mark & Russell's Wild Ride star then revealed how Disney would find "smart" ways to get around having to pay the actors what they deserved.

"[Disney Channel] had a deal with [unions] that the first three seasons of a show you get paid at 88 percent of scale," he explained. "88 percent of minimum wage, pretty much, for the crew. The idea is, pretty much, you work on a show, it becomes popular, you go four, five, six seasons, and you get 100 percent of whatever that is."

"But then they, by the third season, even if the show's popular, they reboot it as a brand-new show. So we were Liv and Maddie for the first three seasons, then the last season it was Liv and Maddie: Cali Style... it's in our contracts that we can't renegotiate unless everyone renegotiates," Bragg shared. "So it's a bunch of little — they're smart lawyers over there at the Mickey Mouse Clubhouse."

Liv and Maddie also starred Dove Cameron, Tenzing Norgay Trainor, Kali Rocha, Benjamin King and Lauren Lindsey Donzis.

The Messenger has reached out to Disney for comment.