Here's How Much The "Modern Family" Cast Made During The First Season Vs. The Last Season

As the veteran actor when the show premiered, with sitcom clout from his role as Al Bundy on Married... with Children, Ed commanded the largest paycheck of the cast at around $95,000 per episode. This was actually lower than his normal quote, but he traded some salary for a small backend stake in the show's profits. Considering what a MASSIVE hit the show became, this was a brilliant idea. 

By the end of the series, Ed was making the same amount per episode as the rest of the "adult" characters on the show — Julie Bowen, Ty Burrell, Sofía Vergara, Eric Stonestreet, and Jesse Tyler Ferguson. (Keep reading this post to find out how it all went down!) Ed actually agreed to reduce his own pay to match his costars' for the small price of a little more backend stake in the show's profits. 

While we don't know Julie's specific salary per episode, Variety reported that most of the remaining adult cast members were paid within the range of $30,000–$60,000 per episode.

Before the start of Season 3, Julie, Ty, Sofía, Jesse, and Eric banded together for the first time to negotiate better pay once the show was a bonafide hit, and as mentioned above, Ed O'Neill agreed to a pay cut to help get them there. While we don't have specifics, at that time the adult cast was set to be making around $65,000 per episode. After Season 3, the adult cast including Ed filed a lawsuit (and won) to increase their per episode rate even more. The group ultimately renegotiated a few times, and sometime during the middle of the show's run, they got their salaries up to $350,000 per episode. By the time they signed their final contract for the show's last two seasons, they were each up to $500,000 per episode.

Eric was reported to be making the least of his fellow adult costars — around $20,000 per episode during Season 1. He ultimately won an Emmy award for his work that season.

Of course, he soon caught up to his other cast mates. During the show's final season, he commanded the same $500,000 per episode as the rest of the adult cast.

While we don't have the specific numbers for their Season 1 salaries, according to Deadline, the younger cast of Modern Family — Sarah Hyland, Ariel Winter, Rico Rodriguez, and Nolan Gould negotiated up to $70,000 per episode for their Season 4 contracts. Deadline said this figure was a little less than "triple" what they started making, which is where the $25,000 comes in. They also reported that originally, Sarah (who was actually 18 at the time of the first season) was making a bit more than the other kids, but they soon had more parity.

As mentioned above, the young cast negotiated up to $70,000 per episode by Season 4. Then, according to Deadline, before Season 9, they renegotiated their contracts, giving them a big bump over $100,000 per episode. 

There was no legitimate source for how much money Aubrey made for her portrayal of Lily, a role she took on starting in Season 3 of the hit show. However, Deadline's reporting about the younger cast renegotiating their contracts did mention that Aubrey's team attempted to renegotiate hers as well, but ultimately, they were unsuccessful since she was just a recent addition to the cast. Various sites online claim that Aubrey was making $70,000 per episode by the time the series ended, but I was unable to find a reliable source for that, so let's just consider that a guesstimate.