SAG-AFTRA Animation Agreement 2026: 12.6% Raise and AI Protections for Voice Actors

The SAG-AFTRA animation agreement for 2026 is approved: voice actors in the American actors' union voted 94.95% to 5.05% to ratify their new TV animation contracts, with voting closing on October 29, 2026. The four-year deal raises wages by 12.6%, strengthens protections against AI and improves residuals when shows move to streaming.

What Is in the SAG-AFTRA Animation Agreement?

The SAG-AFTRA animation agreement sets the minimum pay and working rules for performers who voice animated TV programs made by the studios in the AMPTP. The 2026 version gives a 3% raise in each of its four years, which adds up to 12.6%. It also raises employer contributions to the SAG-AFTRA Health Plan by 1%, adds a 1% increase in pension and retirement contributions from 2028, and puts an extra 0.25% into a new paid parental leave program, Cartoon Brew reported.

"SAG-AFTRA members who work in TV Animation are entitled to meaningful protections around AI and wages that reflect the value of their labor," said Duncan Crabtree-Ireland, the union's national executive director and chief executive officer. Wages were only part of the deal, though. The part most voice actors watched was AI.

What AI Protections Do Voice Actors Get?

The new contracts expand the AI protections voice actors already had. According to Cartoon Brew, they bring in the improvements SAG-AFTRA won in its 2026 live-action agreements while keeping the rules written specifically for animation performers. The previous TV animation contracts, ratified in 2024, were the union's first animation voiceover contracts with any AI protections, AWN noted.

SAG-AFTRA President Sean Astin called it "a dignified deal with essential AI protections." The full contract language has not been published in the reports we could check, so the exact rules on digital voice replicas are not public yet. The other big gain is about streaming money.

How Do Residuals Change for Streaming?

Residuals are the extra payments actors get when a show is reused, and under the new deal they rise by an average of 5% when a program moves to a subscription streaming service. The contracts also raise residuals for some high-budget animated streaming productions, and lift the subscriber factor for qualifying programs on large foreign streaming services from 39% to 41%, according to Cartoon Brew. That matters because more and more animation now lives on streaming. Anime fans will want to know if any of this reaches anime dubs.

Does This Contract Cover Anime Dubs?

Not directly. This contract covers voice work on American animated TV programs, and none of the reports on the vote mention anime or dubbing. English anime dubs are recorded under different arrangements. Some are union work: SAG-AFTRA reached a dubbing agreement with Netflix in 2019, and by 2021 there were about 200 union dub shows, In These Times reported in 2023. Many other anime dubs have been recorded non-union. Crunchyroll's non-union dubs became a public dispute in 2022, when Kyle McCarley, the English voice of Mob in Mob Psycho 100, pushed for a union contract.

So the 12.6% raise does not automatically apply to the person dubbing your favorite anime. The AI rules still matter for anime fans, though. Many English dub actors also voice American cartoons, so the same people are covered by these AI rules when they do that work. Video game voice actors went on strike over AI from July 2024 until a new deal in July 2025, which shows how central the issue has become. For a look at how AI is already used in anime production, see does anime use AI.

For this season's English dubs, see our Crunchyroll Fall 2026 dub schedule. For pay on the Japanese side, read how much anime animators make in Japan, or browse all our industry news.

Sources: Animation World Network (vote result, agreements, term, quotes, 2024 contracts), Cartoon Brew (3% yearly raises, AI wording, residuals, health, pension and parental leave), Deadline (12.6% raise), In These Times (anime dubbing and unions, 2023). Cover photo: SAG-AFTRA building in Los Angeles by ishmael daro, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons, cropped.