Silvercup Studios

The entertainment industry may be youth-obsessed, but at the city’s largest full-service television and film production facility, more than half the employees are over age 50. Silvercup Studios, where shows like Sex in the City, Girls and The Sopranos were filmed, works to retain their employees rather than have to recruit and train new ones.

Though their staff of 49 is not hierarchical, some employees who stay a while do move into positions with more responsibility and authority. A staff member who started out in 1994 as a “schleper,” moving lights and equipment, now manages the company’s location lighting and equipment operation, called Silvertrucks. And when Silvercup expanded in 2016 from having two sites in Queens to adding a third in the Bronx, they promoted their former equipment department manager to manage the whole Bronx facility.

Older workers have had their jobs modified to make them less physically taxing. The company has also executed phased retirement, reducing employees’ hours as they approach retirement age.