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" The cast of Modern Family have reportedly reached a salary deal with producer 20th Century Fox Television. Julie Bowen, Ty Burrell, Jesse Tyler Ferguson, Eric Stonestreet and Sofia Vergara had been seeking a raise to $200,000 (\u00A3129,000) per episode from their current $65,000 (\u00A341,000) per episode pay.  They rejected an offer of $150,000 (\u00A395,000) an episode earlier this week and later filed a lawsuit in an attempt to void their current contract. They claimed that it violated California&amp;#039;s &amp;#039;7 Year Rule&amp;#039;, which prohibits personal services contracts for longer than seven years. The dispute led to the cancellation of the first table read for season four, which was later rescheduled for July 26 as a goodwill gesture from the cast. The Modern Family cast will now be paid around $170,000 (\u00A3108,000) to $175,000 (\u00A3111,000) an episode for the upcoming fourth season including bonuses, according to The Hollywood Reporter. They will also receive a small cut of the show&amp;#039;s back-end profits after using The Big Bang Theory cast&amp;#039;s pay as a model for negotiations. Their salary will rise to $350,000 (\u00A3222,000) per episode in the show&amp;#039;s eighth season.      The cast members have agreed to drop the lawsuit and add one year to their existing seven-season contracts in exchange for the pay rise. Ed O&amp;#039;Neill, who was already earning $105,000 (\u00A366,000) per episode, had been negotiating separately but signed on as a plaintiff in the lawsuit in a show of solidarity to his colleagues. The new deal means that the rest of the cast will earn roughly the same as O&amp;#039;Neill, although he will receive significantly more in back-end participation. Production of Modern Family&amp;#039;s fourth season can now begin on time next week ahead of its September 26 premiere. &amp;quot;It&amp;#039;s no surprise, but I&amp;#039;m of course thrilled and I cannot wait to get on stage Monday morning and start making the show again,&amp;quot; co-creator Steven Levitan said. &amp;quot;It&amp;#039;ll feel great, I&amp;#039;m sure everybody is going to be very relieved and I hope that it&amp;#039;s the beginning of a great season. I feel really good about it. I&amp;#039;m very happy for my friends on the cast for their success, I really am.&amp;quot; &amp;quot;I&amp;#039;m thrilled,&amp;quot; co-creator Christopher Lloyd added. &amp;quot;It was a distraction more than anything. And I think the cast feels the same way. It was never arduous. Now other people can go on with the numbers and we&amp;#039;ll go on with the letters.&amp;quot; Modern Family attracts around 13.1 million viewers and generated $164 million (\u00A3104m) in advertising revenue for broadcaster ABC in 2011. "^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.digitalspy.com/tv/modern-family/news/a395887/modern-family-cast-reach-salary-deal/>