Anyway I'll explain. Under the LORT B contract each show during the season requires an Equity SM and ASM, and one or two PAs are hired depending on where the show falls in the season. Well about 1/2 way through the run of each show the SM goes into rehearsal for the next show (with new PA's) and the ASM takes over the SM duties on the running show (with an equity required pay bump). If the ASM whose previous duties were "running the deck" is now in the booth "calling the show" does that not mean the PA is now basically taking on the duties of the ASM? If it is necessary to pay the ASM more when they bump up is it not reasonable to think the same thing could be said for the PA?
This is a hard one. The pay bump is not something that producer wants to pay, they have to pay it. I ran a program like this for years, where there was a SM, ASM, PA and Intern. (Granted my intern was paid a very decent wage for theater, with overtime, sometimes making more then the AEA SMs on the show), and the intern was paid with housing - in a fairly structured intern program. I don't think the pay bump should be paid to the PA, unless it was part of their contract.
Yes, the intern and apprenticeships as cheap labor is a problem. How to solve it? It's hard when people are willing to do it for free. Unless people stand up for living wage, relocation packages, guaranteed hours. It's part of the reason the AEA Union is so important - think, if Broadway producers could could hire non-AEA actors, they would do it . . . they could probably get good performers to fill roles at less then 1/3 of the cost, without pension and healthcare. Because so many people are desperate for work . . . to create . . . they will work, work, work for so little.
I know young people are often desperate to credits, they will do anything for these jobs. The main issue is low-paying job after low-paying job, when do you stand up and say "this is my value". I know of a young stage manager who PA'ed themselves out of the business. At the end of several years of PAing on Broadway, he found out that no one would hire him for a AEA position, because they know he could be hired at 350.00 a week.
It's a rough, rough business my friends.