A number of the veteran stars have their contracts renewed on a year by year basis. These include Frank Parker, Suzanne Rogers, Peggy McCay and James Reynolds. Frances Reid and John Clarke have lifetime contracts with the show.
This info from Jason47...
Remember that most actors contracts run in 13 week cycles, meaning that they can be dismissed at the end of any 13 weeks, without their contract being up.
It's interesting to note that Robert Kelker-Kelly had re-signed in March 1994 for an additional 2 years (he already had one more year in his contract). This meant he was supposed to stay until March 1997. We all know what happened in that case!
The money and the "outs" are always what make actors want to re-sign with their soaps. In a standard 3-year contract, you're allowed time out to do prime-time films, theater, anything except another soap. But you have to notify the soap in advance. Basic contracts are 6 weeks out with 6 weeks notice. The problem is that you can't land a guest star role 6 weeks in advance because they're only cast a week ahead, so many soap actors are completely shut out.
Some of the perks that some soap stars get: one actress had it written into her contract that the last shot of the day would always be on her and another actress has the whole month of August off.
Beginners earn about $850-$1200 an episode. It is not unusual for a young star to double his or her salary at renewal time. $2000 an episode isn't bad. On the average, soap actors are making $250,000-$300,000 a year. Then there are the handful of 25 people or so who make over that.
(5/21/96 SOD)
Additonal perks include dressing room space and name recognition in the credits at the end of the show. Newcomers often share dressing rooms, while veterans put into their contract the size of dressing room they want, as well as extras, like showers. Although less-frequent, another perk is having one's name specially recognized in the credits. Currently, Deidre Hall has her name listed at the end of all other names, saying "and Deidre Hall as Marlena Evans." That way her name is not in the crawl, lost among the others, but specially recognized. Wayne Northrop also had this as part of his contract when he returned in 1991. This is very rarely done, but for actors like these two, the studio was willing to do just about anything for them.
Gloria Loring (Liz Chandler) was the first Days performer to have it written in her contract that she could act on prime-time shows while working on Days. This has now become a standard in almost all soap contracts.