Oscar-winning actress Mo’Nique (Precious, Interwoven) took to Instagram to ask her fans to boycott Netflix after the streaming service reportedly offered her significantly less pay than their white and male comedians.

She claims she was offered US$500,000 for a comedy special, whereas male counterparts Chris Rock and Dave Chappelle were offered US$20 million and Amy Schumer was originally offered US$11 million (which was renegotiated to US$13 million after the comedian discovered that Rock and Chappelle were offered double).

Since Mo’Nique’s original video, Wanda Sykes tweeted the following in support:

“Now some would ask,” said Mo’Nique in a follow up video, “why is it that Wanda Sykes and Mo’Nique, these two black women who have 50-plus years in the comedy game, be offered US$750,000 between the both of us and Amy Schumer gets US$13 million?”

Pay disparity for people of colour and women in the film industry is receiving more public awareness: Black-ish’s Tracee Ellis Ross has been re-negotiating her salary to receive the same sum as her co-star Anthony Anderson, and it was uncovered that Michelle Williams was been paid less than US$1,000 for reshoots on the movie All the Money in the World, while co-star Mark Wahlberg was paid US$1.5 million, just to name a few examples.

Mo’Nique believed she deserved more and brought up her resume, to which Netflix allegedly said, “We don’t go off of resumes”, clarifying that Schumer’s pricing was arranged due to her selling out Madison Square Garden twice and releasing a major film over the summer.

To this, Mo’Nique responded in her video, “Is that not her resume?”

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