Reacting to a huge uproar over a recent story in Bloomberg News on stagehands making CEO-worthy paychecks - $530,044 in the case of the chief stagehand, with five men earning a total of $2.3 million - Carnegie’s executive and artistic director, Clive Gillinson, called it “an old story.”

In an update to his original article, reporter Philip Boroff writes that, in contrast to the megabucks pulled in by the Carnegie Hall Five, top stagehands at New York City’s Joyce Theater earn about $80,000. Most big-city stagehands earn about $35 an hour, with double time for overtime.

The problem with Carnegie’s high pay rates is that they drive up costs for everyone else, presenters and ticket buyers, in a difficult economy.

Boroff quotes a San Francisco-based stagehand who emailed him: “It’s pretty shocking to see someone in our union earning the kind of money we associate with mortgage brokers, bankers and CEOs. It gives people in this country who hate unions plenty of ammunition.”