Shameless: Emmy Rossum gets pay parity, renewed for season 8

“Shameless” star Emmy Rossum confirmed that the show is renewed for a new season. She declared the said news after her pay dispute was resolved and got her salary parity with co-star William H. Macy.

In the past seasons of the show, Rossum, who plays Fiona, has been offered the same pay as her male co-star William. However, it has been reported that Rossum has asked Warner Bros Television and Showtime some retroactive equal pay with William. According to Variety, Rossum was demanding equal pay with Macy, after seven seasons of being paid less than him.

Rossum’s request to be back-paid equally for her performance made a great impact on some popular actresses in the industry. Jennifer Lawrence, Robin Wright and Patricia Arquette took part on this and have helped elevate the conversation in Hollywood. Viola Davis, currently starring in ABC's "How to Get Away With Murder," also spoke her mind about the said issue and added her own sentiments regarding how women of color are also affected. "I believe in equal pay, first of all. I’m sorry, if a woman does the same job as a man, she should be paid the same amount of money. At the same time, with me as an actress of color, I have to say to probably contradict myself, that’s not something I think about on a daily basis. Because the struggle for us as women of color is just to be seen the same as our white female counterparts."

On Wednesday, Rossum finally announced that she has reached a new deal and agreement to continue on the series. “Playing Fiona Gallagher has been one of the great privileges of my life. I'm so happy to continue w my SHAMELESS family!Back to work in May,” she wrote on her Twitter page.

There will be 12 episodes for the eighth season of the show. Although no premiere date has been publicly revealed, Showtime has declared that it will start production in 2017. “Shameless” really wanted to renew the show earlier but it was not possible since the producers were still resolving Rossum’s salary.

“Shameless” is aired Wednesdays at 8:30pm on SoHo.